Stephen Mejias

Signs of sickness, with a scent like ennui, all over the apartment: dirtied tissues tossed to the floor, the many jilted cups of tea, unfinished this, unwashed that, empty cans of soup, the pale and quiet Moscode.

Today I received an e-mail from one of my favorite hi-fi sales managers. These are the guys who help me collect pricing and dealer data, images to accompany our reviews, and other behind-the-scenes stuff.

It turns out that Dr. L.R., PhD, does not have two first names. While her last name is spelled just like a very ordinary first name, it is pronounced in a way that makes it something entirely different.

JA, the industrious, is home today, working on his review of the Slim Devices Squeezebox, which will appear in our next eNewsletter. This makes me happy. Happy, not because JA, the boss, is home, but happy because he's working on his review of the Squeezebox. And, the Squeezebox, as we know, with all of its delicious features and its oh-so-sleek-and-simple lines that fit snugly in the tiniest of corners to broadcast your Editors and Jimmy Edgars and Pink Martinis and Sonic Youth-slash-Fugazis from your office to your kitchen to your bedside window ledge to your broom closet and back into your sweetly pitter-pattering music-loving heart,