Lord & Taylor's bags threaten to upstage those of its glossier rivals, like the ultrachic Bergdorf Goodman, whose traditional lavender bags, emblazoned with the image of well-dressed Park Avenue ladies, are thin and frail by comparison.

The hackers had homemade programs, which they called proggies, and each proggie had some stupid scary-sounding name that paid homage to the miasma of gangsta rap and Mountain Dew from which it had been born.

But when I had crossed the threshold, I was astonished at the paucity of facts to be gleaned from the inmates themselves.

Hell is a strait and dark and foul-smelling prison, an abode of demons and lost souls, filled with fire and smoke.