Yesterday, according to the Globe, the city made a sweep of Newbury Street, confiscating sandwich boards and handing out $200 fines to businesses that had them out on the sidewalk. Fair enough, I guess.

The real revelation of the Globe article, though, is fabulous fascist Meg Mainzer-Cohen , president of the Back Bay Association, who's quoted throughout. She's apparently been harping on this sandwich board crisis for years. According to the story, "each year, Mainzer-Cohen said, complaints about the sandwich boards increase. Last summer, she said, there were about 15 complaints." A whopping fifteen complaints! Now, that's serious.

Mainzer-Cohen's vision of the Back Bay is uncompromising. "Part of what makes this such an attractive neighborhood is that it is very strictly regulated," she's quoted as saying. "And at the end of the day, that's why people want to be here." Is it? Maybe the Pod People.

The truth is, the BBA is a voluntary organization with no legal authority, as far as I know. They get what authority they have from their membership. If they start alienating businesses that belong to their group, then, one assumes, said businesses could leave and form some version of an anti-BBA (they could call it ABBA) to annihilate their evil twin and take down Mainzer-Cohen, the Madam Mao of the Back Bay.

Now, that's something I'd like to see. A rumble on Newbury Street! On one end, Madam Mao and her army of Back Bay automatons, on the other Marilyn Tushman of Scottish Cashmeres, David Thompson of Eclipse hair salon (who likes it "a little funky") and their rag-tag band of throwbacks.

Winner takes all.