I'm happy to say that the new Stereophile t-shirts have arrived, in both men's and women's styles (we are, indeed, hopeful), and the baseball caps are on the way. Even more exciting, for me at least, are the soon-to-be completed Attention Screen CDs. I've already seen the very attractive digipacks and booklets, and everything looks as it should — all of the pages are in the right order and no pictures are upside down! Hallelujah.

Finally, it looks as though we've found an intern. Ariel Bitran is a student at New York University, majoring in marketing with minors in music and psychology. He was born in Santiago, Chile, and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, and says he is extremely passionate about world cultures and, of course, music. He has studied guitar for 10 years, has performed with numerous bands, and even started his own guitar tutoring business. And guess what: Ariel says that he is constantly hunting for the superior listening experience.

I'll look forward to working with, and getting to know, Ariel. He starts with the summer and the heat, in June.