Wes Phillips

In yesterday's philippic">http://blog.stereophile.com/wesphillips/011307ces/">philippic about CES's petty annoyances, I said that I continue to be a recidivist in spite of them. The reason? Pretty much that the high-end portion of the industry remains a fascinating, personal, and essentially civilized place.

It must be the week after the Consumer Electronics Show: I'm all written out on consumer electronics, my feet hurt, and I have a cold. All three happen every year.

Why off to CES2008, of course. Check out Stereophile's coverage at our Show">http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2008/">Show blog.

Our least trusting cat has inexplicably determined that her favorite perch in the house is on the heavily trafficked threshold between the kitchen and living room. She's training us to step lightly—and as far to the other side as possible.

On Christmas day, my friend, the Nuyorican goddess Liz Ramirez-Weaver saw me looking at Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. "It's good," she said. "You should borrow it."

The Economist has an uncredited article about great">http://www.economist.com/world/europe/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=1027… charts. They're all familiar to readers of Edward Tufte's The Visual Display of Quantative Information, but they are great charts.

When I picked up the mail on Saturday, I had an unexpected package. It contained Vance Dickason's Loudspeaker">http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9781882580477">Loudspeaker Design Cookbook, 7^th Edition. Oh boy!