City's flash mob lacks flash, mob

It wasn't exactly like the scene in Australia when hundreds materialized at the Sydney Opera House, singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," or in New York, when a crowd appeared as if out of thin air to ogle an Oriental rug at Macy's.

When the city of Boston tried to stage one of those trendy, ultrawired flash mobs yesterday, they didn't get a lot in the way of flash or mob.

Some innovative event planners at City Hall had heard about the flash mob phenomenon of last summer, when young techno-crowds zipped off e-mails and cellphone messages to organize random gatherings of counterculture Net-heads. The planners figured they could get the same kind of buzz for Mayor Thomas M. Menino's ReadBoston youth literacy initiative.

But at the appointed time, 11:30 a.m., the only people who appeared at Downtown Crossing were 15 ReadBoston workers. They made the best of it, donning red-and-white-striped hats, handing out bookmarks and reading Dr. Seuss books from atop a milk crate, for 90 minutes. They slapped red stickers on passersby, declaring, "It's Dr. Seuss's 100th birthday!" Many shot back confused stares, and more than a few replied, "Dr. who?"

The essence of flash mobs seemed lost on the BostonReads workers, who sent out a citywide press release the day before their event, but didn't get around to the e-mail or cellphone part of it. Said ReadBoston spokeswoman Jessica Shumaker: "Hey, we're trying, right? For the city, that's pretty hip."

DONOVAN SLACK