Roger Cohen, editor at large and columnist of the International Herald Tribune, has just written a decidedly mixed review of "Überpower. The Imperial Temptation of America," by Josef Joffe, co-publisher of the highbrow German weekly Die Zeit. While praising the book's content -- "a brilliant polemic for benign American centrality" -- Cohen savages its style, particularly the "endless, irritating alliterations." A prime example: "balance, bond and build," Joffe's prescription for American power.

Apparently without knowing it, Cohen has hit out at a tic of German journalism in general (Whoops! Alliteritis can be contagious!). Alliteration isn't restricted to German, of course, and serves an important purpose when used properly. In prose it's like perfume: It should draw attention to what's beneath, and not to itself. Otherwise, it distracts and annoys (not to say stinks). Tabloid journalism, advertising and poetry can take heavier applications with no ill effect. In Germany, though, alliteration is often sprinkled liberally on serious journalism too.

I don't know why. Perhaps it's something in Germans' makeup, an errant gene that's also responsible for their affinity to oom-pah-pah music. In Joffe's case, a genetic predisposition to alliteration may have been inadvertently reinforced by his parents naming him Josef.

Headlines and titles are the most popular playgrounds for Germans' alliterative urges. "Pleiten, Pech und Pannen" is a perennial favorite, in line with Germans' penchant for pessimism. "Titel, Thesen, Temperamente" has been the name of ARD television's "Kulturmagazin" since 1967. "Männer, Mädchen, Motoren." "Götter, Gräber und Gelehrte." "Gulasch, Geigen und Genossen." "Turmaline, Tempel und Touristen." Mixing and matching is marvelous!

No matter what the mood.

In 2002, when the German media industry hit the skids hard, Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber opened the annual Medientage München with the words: "Konkurse, Kündigungen, Kurzarbeit und knappe Kassen -- wir blicken auf die größte Branchenkrise der Nachkriegszeit."