24 January 2002

Bleats James Lileks' Bleat has a steady slot on my daily reading list.  Yesterday, he dissected Richard Scarry's Best ABC Ever: "(It being his only one, it has a clear claim to the field.) The first Richard Scarry video we owned was described in this space at length...Well. This video is even worse...But Bananas speaks in complete sentences in the voice of George Burns, which leads one to wonder why he’s a butt-scratching moron in subsequent videos, capable only of grunting “Bananas!” Apparently he suffered a great blow to the head between videos; no other explanation makes sense. I am afraid to visit earlier videos, lest I find him wearing a jacket with patches at the elbow, arguing with Stephen Hawkins about the composition of dark matter." He's also ranting about estate taxes right now, but believe me, I would read Lileks on tort reform. So go read him already! 11:13:12 AM

Note to self I hope to be stepping up from boom box to Hi Fi in the near future, and I've been pondering whether the PC - Hi Fi connection will be as simple as it ought to be. Here's the NY Times on some options: "...the RadioShack cable...produced good-quality sound considering the limited time, effort and money required. Good quality, that is, until I compared them with the Stereo-Link Model 1200. This device, about the size of a hardcover novel, draws sound out of a PC or Mac U.S.B. port and sends it to the stereo through a cable that plugs into the stereo's Audio In jacks. Some kind of aural alchemy takes place within the box, resulting in a sound that is as rich and full-bodied as any that might be generated by playing a CD on the stereo. The biggest drawback to the Stereo-Link is that once you try it you can't help viewing the cable solutions as lesser substitutes: they're like eating discount ice cream after you have gotten used to Häagen-Dazs. So the big question most people will need to ask themselves is whether the Stereo-Link is worth an extra $145, the difference between it and the $10 cables from RadioShack." 10:41:21 AM