Mondo potato

Pawtucket native Mr. Potato Head spent the primary campaign season flexing his political (and detachable) muscle. An Iowa man who began traveling with a Mr. Potato Head four years ago, came up with a novel way to elect a president. He based his vote on how the candidates reacted to having their picture taken with the plastic spud. The popularity of the Hasbro toy went a notch higher last month when a London newspaper gave Mr. Potato Head a new honor: its own syndrome. In a review of “The Half-Known Life,” a book by Simonetta Wenkert, Independent on Sunday writer Charlie Lee-Potter describes “Mr. Potato Head Syndrome” in the context of characters that have “an assortment of attributes that don’t quite add up to convincing wholes.”