Natasha Walter argues that Brühilde, not Siegfreid, is the real hero of the Ring cycle. Her proof is in the music.

The pairing has been likened to Mary Poppins and Satan. That's the easy and obvious way out, and it's a load of crap. It's much more difficult than that. They're much more similar than they are different, coming together to tell one story and filling in each other's blanks only when the reverb gets too thick. But I don't want to say any more about it. I'll now speak only of the differences I heard between listening in the office — through my computer's Dell speakers — and listening at home — with the Musical Fidelity A3.5 system and Totem Arro speakers.

I'd laugh if I weren't so busy crying.

And I play one on TV, too. Why some academics can hit it and others have to quit it. Yes, we're still talking television.

Steve Martin never ceases to amaze me—sometimes by his audacity, sometimes by what he chooses to do (any number of recent movie projects illustrates this point, although our culture's current resistance to good film-making is not his fault). I digress, however—this is powerful, honest writing and I feel better for simply having read it. You go, Mr. Martin.

We're talking two 500-cubic-inch V-8s, 1000 board-feet feet of mahogany (cut into 4183 pieces), five gallons of glue, 60 pounds of drywall screws, and four gallons of varnish.