I'll second the other poster who talked about the various categories of data in iTunes (or other software). Even with books from major publishers (Random House, or Listening Library for the Harry Potter books), they seem to start every CD with a different criteria for organizing the data. This makes importing to an iPod impossible without spending a whole lot of time renaming files.

For example, I think the Artist field ought to be the author, spelled exactly the same each time. Not "JK Rowling" on CD 1, and then "J.K. Rowling" on CD 2, and so on. They all need the same thing in the Artist field to list together.

Likewise with the Album field. That ought to be the book title, spelled the same way. If abbreviated, it should be abbreviated the same way. I don't need to know what CD it is. After the import, it doesn't matter any more. So no "Book Title (CD1)". Just "Book Title" for every CD.

For books with long titles, abbreviate sensibly. For example, every one of the Harry Potter books start with "Harry Potter and the." As a listener, I only care about the last words in the title. Abbreviate appropriately, and think about the size of an iPod screen.

The Name field (usually the song name) should be the chapter title, followed by some kind of notation for divisions within each chapter. What I hate are books that don't divide into three-minute (roughly) segments. If they try to divide the sound files into chapters, you end up with some files that are half an hour or more long, which is IMPOSSIBLE to find your place in. You end up listening to a whole lot of stuff you've already heard, or surfing around trying to find your place.

The best notation I've seen is:

01a Chapter Name

01b Chapter Name

01c Chapter Name

02a Chapter Name

(and so on)

If they name the files right (like I described above), I can find an author, look for the album (book), then see all the files for that book, which always fall in the right order in lists.

By the way, the Harry Potter books on audio are absolutely top notch. Even if you're not a Harry Potter fan, get them just for the audio performance. Jim Dale is nothing short of magnificent, and won a grammy for one of the books (can't remember which one).

What people fail to understand when they say that universal health care would "bankrupt" the country, is that the traditional health care we have now will do it too.

It's a death spiral. First, 30% or more of your health care premiums go to insurance companies, who pay vast staffs of people to decide what you do and don't get, and how much they'll pay, depending on your employer, your plan, your age, your pre-existing conditions, yadda yadda.

Then, add in the hospitals, which are funding their emergency rooms and psychiatric care (i.e. the chronically uninsured and/or mentally ill) by raising the costs for those who CAN pay. That psychiatric patient who the police picked up and delivered to the hospital, as a danger to herself and others? Do you think she has insurance? There's your $9 Tylenol, your $25 plastic pan, your $10 bottle of lotion. Your surgical procedure that cost 20% more than last year.

The costs rise. The insurance companies push back and cover less. Your premium goes up. Your employer drops health insurance. More people end up in the emergency room, which raises the costs for those who still have insurance. And down and down we all go.

Covering everyone, with properly delivered preventative care, would result in less cost for everyone. It's cheaper to manage diabetes for a lifetime than to amputate a leg or care for someone who has gone blind. It's cheaper to provide generic heart medication than to have someone in intensive care for a heart attack.

I suppose I'm that demographic--I have elementary school children, I live in the suburbs, I'm married, and one of my kids plays soccer.

However, even among my cohort of fellow "soccer moms" there is incredible diversity. Some work, some stay home. Some work part time. Some are the primary breadwinners, some are not. Some are recent immigrants. Some are white. Some are married, some are divorced. Some are all varying shades of nonwhite. Some attend church, synagogue, or temple, some don't. Some volunteer at every school event, some don't. Some never worked after college and had kids right away, some never took more than maternity leave off from work.

It's hard to see these people as a block. Speaking from the inside, I'd be willing to bet a beer and a lunch that we all aren't voting the same. We have similarly-aged children, who attend public school. But the similarity ends there.

I think the endless hunt for a voting bloc is a bit shortsighted, and a waste of time.

Because the dollar is weak, our stuff is cheap. The only reason that trade number is up, I'd bet a beer, is the weak dollar.

(We have family visiting from Europe at the moment. They seem to be on a nonstop shopping spree because everything is so cheap here).