Wes Phillips

Today's posts follow a common theme. First, we direct you to the Reith lectures on BBC4. And yes, dear readers (this means you, Clay White), this time you get transcripts as well as audio streaming and podcasts.

Next, we have this article, submitted by Jonathan Scull, which says the lectures rail against "passive noise pollution"—that Daniel Barenboim claims we are too frequently forced to hear music over which we have no control and, thus, we listen too infrequently to music we have actually chosen.

Over at The Times, Terence Kealey begs to differ, not just with Barenboim's (and Plato's) premise that music uses sound to educate the soul in virtue, but also that "making music and playing it in an orchestra is the best way to understand democracy."

So I don't mind if you think I'm a hopeless dweeb for loving last night's West Wing. After all, when I asked my flight attendant for a special service on Saturday, I said, "you'll probably lose all respect for me . . . ."

Yes! Find out that it's a lot harder than you think to make a vinyl record. Best part: Incorrectly centering the disc. (Most record presses do a pretty good job of this.)

Bagheera looking uncharacteristically silly—although maybe she's just blinded by my new flash.

Huckleberry looks pensive—which is definitely not in his nature.