LATEST ADDITIONS

They're saying five to seven inches in the city.

Although she'll deny it, my wife thinks ill of me because I've failed to buy her a new Mini Cooper. I can point to a number of things in my defense&mdash;especially the Mini's lack of all-wheel drive, which we need for climbing our quarter-mile driveway in bad weather, and its insufficient cargo and passenger space&mdash;all of which would constrain a Dudley-owned Mini Cooper to recreational use only. And a new round of car payments would be difficult to justify for those reasons: <I>not</I> because I'm cheap, and not because I'm too old to appreciate a car that's fun to drive.

As I was scrolling through the offerings at TDF a few weeks ago, I spotted a performance by the McCollough Sons of Thunder Brass Band. <I>Hmmm</I>, I thought I remembered my old friend Michael Cogswell mentioning to me that I ought to check them out. Actually, what he told me was that if I was ever able to hear them, I should cancel everything I <I>could</I> be doing and hie myself hence at oncely.

My ears had been bothering me. First my right, then the left. A low-level high-pitched ringing, followed by a congested feeling and a popping like what you get when flying or taking an elevator way up to the 29th floor. Then, one morning in Las Vegas while attending the <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2008/">Consumer Electronics Show</a>, my left ear went <i>whooooooooosh</i>. And my hearing was momentarily dulled&#151not completely gone, just dulled. Outside sounds were farther away, my own voice sounded distant and muffled. It freaked me out.

Bentley Motors, the 89-year-old, Volkswagen-owned manufacturer of bespoke luxury automobiles has decided that a high-end audio system would complete its definition of automotive excellence, choosing Salisbury-based audio manufacturer Naim to develop a "Naim For Bentley" system.

On weekends, I play guitar in a string band whose membership varies between two and five members, depending on the location of the job and the amount of pay offered. We're reasonably good at picking and singing, but we lack the originality that would make someone want to buy our albums, which is why we haven't made them. Our little group is McDonald's, not Le Circe or even Applebee's, and I'm at peace with that.

You forget to turn the power amp off while unplugging an input cable, or your neighbor walks over and taps your tonearm while a record is playing. Has bad luck ever struck your audio system?