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.

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.

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.

Received this fax today:

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.