"The Rule of Themed Anthologies"

The May 28 Arts & Style section in the Washington Post (which I received a day early as a longtime subscriber) features a review of a set of essays titled In Their Lives: Great Writers on Great Beatles Songs.  The book sounds absolutely dreadful, but I did get a kick out of the following comment by Michael Lindgren, the reviewer:

The Rule of Themed Anthologies says that one-third of such collections will be thought-provoking and insightful, one-third will be just okay, and one-third will be tossed-off words from writers too guilty or desperate to say no to the commissioning editor.

Thinking back over the many anthologies we've read during our 18 years (and counting!) as a group, I would say that rule holds up pretty well!