LATEST ADDITIONS

Test your siege engine skills! Educational <I>and</I> addictive.

I'm not surprised at studies' conclusion that a committed relationship and a social network are more crucial to happiness than wealth. No, I'm gobsmacked that there's a field called "happiness research."

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine estimate that the human eye transmits visual data at more or less the rate of an Ethernet connection.

From <I>Stereophile</I> writer Fred Mills:

Tom Waits tickets for the August 2nd show at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville, NC sold out in 15 minutes. Waits publicist Tresa Redburn tells me the Atlanta date sold out in less than half hour.

"Yours truly was on-line hacking away at the Ticketmaster site," Mills said today, taking a break from pressure washing moss from the roof of his home in Asheville.

He also mentioned that a pair of tickets for the Chicago show went on eBay and someone who couldn’t wait for the auction, used the "Buy Now" function and bought them for $1500.00. I scanned eBay and found a pair of 4th row seats for the Asheville gig going for $549.00. A pair for the last date, in Akron, Ohio, are being offered for $450.00. In Akron, Ohio!!! This despite measures to limit scalping and reselling. And the fact that he rarely if ever these days dips back into the Asylum&#150era material that everyone loves.

The best part about this eight date mini-tour of the South and Midwest is that he’s playing great old theatres, most of which have great acoustics. Here's the list: read it and weep, `cause these tickets be long gone. Or silly expensive.

Tues, Aug 1 Atlanta, GA Tabernacle
Wed, Aug 2 Asheville, NC Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
Fri, Aug 4 Memphis, TN Orpheum Theatre
Sat, Aug 5 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium
Mon, Aug 7 Louisville, KY Palace Theatre
Wed, Aug 9 Chicago, IL Auditorium Theatre
Fri, Aug 11 Detroit, MI Opera House
Sun, Aug 13 Akron, OH Akron Civic

To those who don't get the whole Waits cult, all I have to say is, something's happening somewhere with this guy. Few artists, in any genre, at any time, are able to sell out tickets, quite this fast.

Well, the last time I was in Peru, I bought a piece of eight because I heard that's what Brian May uses as a pick&mdash;but that was only 400 years old and only cost about $4. These picks, made from meteorites, are 4.5 billion years old and cost over $100.

<I>Scientific American</I> says cognitive scientists believe chess really is "the touchstone of the intellect." Although it makes for a good story, I suspect they just think that little horsie looks cool.

The thing about Tuesday is that I've got my therapy session at 6pm. I spend the day processing submissions for our <i>Buyer's Guide</i>. I go through each Excel spreadsheet making sure things look the way they're supposed to. It's a tedious, generally unfulfilling, task. A task measured out in columns, rows, and cells. I have found no way to incorporate art or love. I transfer the tidied files from one folder on our server to another. Cut and paste. Control X, Control C. Kristina then collects the new file and transfers it to a Master spreadsheet. It is a strange kind of communication, this digital dance we do.

It really wasn't the planes that killed him, you know.

I hate when that happens.

Jon Carroll reports on his summer reading&mdash;<I>Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England,</I>&mdash;and proves yet again that he can turn out better stuff daily than most of us can hope for in a lifetime.