LATEST ADDITIONS

Every Tuesday, <I>The Guardian</I> posts John Crace's "Digested Read," which is a parodic review of a book written in the (greatly exaggerated) style of the book itself.

Somebody at <I>The Washington Post</I> had the supremely brilliant idea of having Pulitzer Prize winning literary critic Michael Dirda <A HREF="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/06/AR20071…; <I>The Completely Mad Don Martin</I>.

When I browse through early issues of this magazine, I envy <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/historical/712">J. Gordon Holt</A>. When he <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/711">founded</A&gt; <I>Stereophile</I> in 1962, there were aspects of society that stood as solid as the Rockies overlooking his current Colorado home. Back then a magazine was a thing forever; the main means of serious communication would always be the written word; records would always be LPs...recorded in stereo; the US had a large, prosperous consumer electronics industry; computers were huge mainframes made in the USA by IBM (of course), and required air-conditioned rooms and armies of white-coated attendants; everyone watched three broadcast television networks; once a film left the neighborhood cinema, it was gone forever&mdash;or at least until it appeared on the "Late, Late, Late Show." And most importantly, people took for granted that progress in sound reproduction meant improvements in quality.

As easy as it is to communicate electronically, some things are still better done in person. At too-infrequent intervals, I visit <I>Stereophile</I>'s writers, listen to their systems, and basically get them to show'n'tell the components they're reviewing. In this way, if they describe what <I>I'm</I> hearing, I have the confidence to publish their review, even if its findings run counter to accepted wisdom.

What are the chances of your dying from various causes? <A HREF="http://www.riskometer.org/">Riskometer</A&gt; tells you.

When Philip Pullman wrote <I>His Dark Materials</I>, he thought he might have written a story that would appeal to a "a few clever kids and a few intelligent adults." The series has been translated into 40 languages and has sold 15 million copies. If he was that wrong about that, he's probably wrong about what it's about, too.