house are another three or four more. I know there’s another in the master bathroom. At least four of our lamps are connected to timers. The cars each have a clock and I’m sure if I looked I’d probably find one out in the garage somewhere.

As you would expect, there are also alarm clocks in the bedrooms. There are two in my daughter’s room, one of which more accurately qualifies as a “sound and time convergence device.” The other is in a small television set. My son has a conventional clock radio, a dismal assemblage of plastic bits that lights the night with outsized red numerals and greets the dawn with either a startling blahting sound or a noise that closely resembles the sound of music being played through a coffee can filled with rocks.

And then there is the Nakamichi SoundSpace 3 that has served as clock and entertainment device in our bedroom the past couple of years. It was a proud day when we brought this marvel of sound and technology home from the local electronics store. As Nakamichi’s own website proclaims . . .