I can't hear you, Mommy, I have cans on my ears

[wombat_socho]

I'm old-fashioned in a number of ways, and one of them is my choice of headphones. When I was growing up during the Nixon/Ford Administration, headphones came in two varieties: large and painful, or large and comfortable, and since nobody but schools bought the first variety, there was a plentiful supply of the latter. Thirty years later, though, when you go out shopping for headphones it seems you have a choice between ear buds (which fall out of my ears), lightweight headphones (which increase my chance of deafness since I have to crank up the volume to drown out the ambient noise) or the old familiar cans, most of which are seemingly intended for DJs and cost about a day's pay. Last month I bought a pair of Koss headphones at WalMart and foolishly did not save the receipt; they lost the right-hand channel after three weeks. Tonight I dropped by Best Buy, hoping that they still carried the Sony CD-180s that have lasted me about three years now at work, but alas, the least expensive of the Sony cans went for about $80, which was fifty bucks more than I wanted to pay. I wound up getting another pair of Koss phones, which look a little more durable than the model I got at Walmart, and am going to register them for the lifetime warranty. Just in case.

Meanwhile, Hanukkah is drawing to a close, and though I'm a Jew by genes rather than observance, it's good to remember what the holiday is all about. Reverend Sensing points us to this essay by Ed Lasky on the true meaning of Hanukkah. It's not about the dreidels and Hanukkah gelt any more than Christmas is about the presents and the candy. RTWT.