Florence Foster Jenkins was many things. A teacher, a philanthropist, and a kind and generous friend, by many accounts. What she was not, was a gifted vocal artist, despite her unshakable belief to the contrary.

Paul West writes the first aphasic memoir. As a writer, I find the loss of language skills the most terrifying boogie man of them all.

On August 15, Sonos announced the release of Sonos System Software v2.3, which adds Sirius Internet Radio connectivity to the company's line of digital music systems. Sirius subscribers who own Sonos systems can add that system to their coverage for an additional $2.99/month. Sonos system owners who do not already subscribe to Sirius can purchase Sirius Internet Radio subscriptions for $12.95/month.

The Harvey acquisition of MyerEmco announced in <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/051407harvey/">May</A&gt; has been called off. The merger&mdash;which was supposed to have closed by June 7, later extended to the end of July, and then pushed back to August 10&mdash;called for Harvey to pay $10 million in cash and assume MyerEmco's debt.

<B>John Atkinson: Making It Live</B>
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The e-mail from <I>Stereophile</I> reviewer Bob Reina was straightforward: "I want to make a demo of my new jazz group. I plan to record the session in my living room by getting my old four-channel Teac 3440 out of mothballs and sticking one or two mikes on each instrument. I'd like your view on which mikes would be most appropriate for the four instruments . . . "