This week's e-newsletter from Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, Mass., began: "From time to time I proudly make mention of Booksmith's 56 years in Coolidge Corner, but we've only been on the scene for a little while, really. If you took a family portrait of Boston area bookstores, we're there in the back row with all the aunts and uncles: Trident, Rodney's, Newtonville, Children's Bookshop, Grolier, Raven. I like to think we're the cool aunt who's gonna try to mess up the picture.
'Papercuts, want to hear a secret?'
'What?'
'Fart.'
"Giggling, Papercuts JP almost falls off Grandpa Brattle Bookshop's lap. Porter Square Books rolls her eyes and puts bunny ears behind Harvard Book Store's head. Pressing the button to start the timer, New England Mobile Book Fair runs to get into the frame. Grandma Schoenhof just smiles indulgently, this will be her last time in the picture.
"Yes, after 161 years of bookselling in Harvard Square, Schoenhof's Foreign Books will open its doors for the last time on March 25th. The world-class expertise and service will continue online, which is a relief for all the rest of us booksellers, as we have been referring customers to Schoenhof's for as long as we've all been in business. Except Grandpa Brattle, who can still remember when President John Quincy Adams came in once to get quarters for the meter."