This has got to be one of the freakiest, oddest, indescribably bizarre and unexpected things I’ve come across on the Web lately. It’s particularly good if you’ve just been to Disneyland (or if you’ve been as many times as I have).

Barbie has an announcement to make: Barbie is going to star in her own science-fiction adventure-fantasy called “Barbie-ella.” Barbie thinks it will be an enormous hit with young boys who want to see Barbie wearing armor and shooting a gun while wearing stilletto heels.

Bait

It was kinda difficult—though not really—to spend $X,XXX recently on a new center channel speaker for my surround system. Add that to the $X,XXX already paid for the new matching main speakers, and that’s $X,XXX. While it’s all tax deductible, it’s still a lot of money for “just some speakers.”

But I feel better. I have been reading a free CES copy of The Absolute Sound, a stereo hi-fi magazine.

I used to subscribe to Stereophile back in the early ’90s, and one thing has been reinforced by my reading this competitor publication and recalling my Stereophile days: I spent nothing on my speakers.

Snotty elitist attitude of stereo hi-fi snobs aside (I know, pot, kettle, black, etc.), there is something impressive in the folly that is high-end audio. The article I’m interrupting to write this post is (brace yourself for some impressive but accidental alliteration) discussing an excellent sound set-up using a set of satellite/sub speakers that cost $83,500. That’s two speakers and a subwoofer. Three items. $83,500. The two pre-amps being used to drive these exorbitant speakers cost $21,380 for the pair. The two amps being used are $29,250 for the pair. And that’s sans cables and, as the magazine quaintly puts it, a “turntable.”

I am certainly not allowed to complain about people spending large amounts of money or vast amounts of time discussing and pursuing perfection. My cell phone post recently is an example of such ridiculousness. And I shall say that if there is someone who wants to spend their probably-not-hard-earned-cash on these items, please, go at it! I am in fact not writing to complain at all, but to verbally express how my eyes goggle at the concept of spending that much on some speakers and amps. It makes my semi-expensive set-up feel like a huge bargain, yet I still love how it all sounds.

Thank you, inordinately rich people!