My wife’s company has come up with their own version of a handheld device.

It’s pretty low tech. Well, really low tech. Yet functional.

Introducing SPLENDORA HANDHELD, Splendora’s third and most comprehensive city guide. It’s a tremendous New York city guide, San Francisco city guide and L.A. city guide.

Check it out… I even made the acknowledgements (though the font is pretty small in that section).

A funny thing happened during the French Open last weekend. It was awesome. The men’s final (and the related and ongoing rivalry) between Roger Federer and the clay marvel Rafa Nadal was excellent.

Let’s put it this way. The French did the wave.

Why is tennis dying in terms of viewer interest while other sports like golf are succeeding?

There are a few reasons. One of them is the equipment.

As golf equipment gets better, the sport becomes more interesting (at least it doesn’t get less so). But the improved equipment in tennis has gradually taken the thrill out of the game.

Watch Wimbledon lately? Probably not. But if you had, you’d likely have noticed that a rally that goes beyond two power shots is relatively rare.

The one place where the equipment has not ruined the men’s game is on the delightfully slow, red clay courts. The clay of the courts at places like French Open brings rallys and in turn, personality and drama back into the game.

We can rest assured that the tennis equipment will only get better. And that means that the big money game will only get worse.

What if all the majors were held on clay? It would never happen, but I bet tennis would be the better for it.

The waiting for Herschel is finally over.

And he was well worth the wait. His mom did a great job. Even her hair was perfect.

First song. Jungleland by Springsteen.

First rule. You can be whatever you want to be as long as you agree not to have an internet startup.

First lesson. Sharing is caring, so let the cats use your stuff once in awhile, they were here first.

How does one know if they’ve been infected by the disease that is overly partisan politics?

Well, today’s events in Iraq provide a nice opportunity for self-diagnosis.

If your initial reaction to the news that Insurgent Leader Al-Zarqawi had been Killed in Iraq was either:

“Uh oh, that could be good for Bush especially with the midterm elections around the corner…”

or

“That oughta teach those left wing naysayers. We never would’ve got him if they were in power…”

Then you’ve got the disease.

Unfortunately, there is only one cure for this particular affliction: Critical thought.

So needless to say, the prognosis is not good.

There’s been a whole lot of debate about whether or not the internet is the monster eating away at music industry profits.

What if the internet has nothing to do with it?

We’ve long known that video killed radio as the key driver of massively marketable songs and artists (the shift officially took place around the time a cut midriff started counting for more than, say, a killer riff on a Fender Strat).

But what if that key driver disappeared? What if MTV and VH1 - the networks that dominated music marketing and replaced the Wolfman Jacks of the world – suddenly stopped pushing the product?

Chances are sales would decrease, no?

And that’s exactly what happened. When is the last time you saw a music video on VH-1? You might catch an occasional outtake between not so real life peeks into the surreal lives of former stars, but that’s about it.

Peter Brady, Hulk Hogan, and Ozzy are the ones who have hurt music sales.

The irony in all of this will be that the internet – with video delivery tools from You Tube to Google to iTunes to Launch to Urge – is the very vehicle that can bring music sales back.

Maybe the next selection of Surreal Life cast members should be culled from former music industry big wigs who were convinced the net was their ultimate foe. A season as an opening act to Hulk Hogan’s family would serve them right.

Evil-Doers and border guarding vigilantes make for more interesting headlines but the real battle of this generation is probably not terrorism (or Iraq or the war on drugs, ha, or side details like immigration). It’s a topic that is often discussed in the past tense in the U.S.

It’s AIDS:

Since June 5, 1981, HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, has killed more than 25 million people, infected 40 million others and left a legacy of unspeakable loss, hardship, fear and despair.

Its spread was hastened by ignorance, prejudice, denial and the freedoms of the sexual revolution. Along the way from oddity to pandemic, AIDS changed they way people live and love…

In the worst case, sub-Saharan Africa, it has been devastating. And the next 25 years of AIDS promise to be deadlier than the first.

AIDS could kill 31 million people in India and 18 million in China by 2025, according to projections by U.N. population researchers. By then in Africa, where AIDS likely began and where the virus has wrought the most devastation, researchers said the toll could reach 100 million.