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Long-lived acoustic guitar and harmonica duos are fairly unusual in the history of the country blues idiom. Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee as well as Hammie Nixon and Sleepy John Estes both had active performing and recording careers through the 1960s … and John Cephas and Phil Wiggins have been carrying on the tradition since 1977. Fortuitously, the ear-catching sound is getting an additional boost these days through the invigorating music of guitarist/vocalist Paul Rishell and harmonica ace Annie Raines. Audiences worldwide, particularly in the past four or five years, have been won over by the team’s imaginative adaptations and sympathetic re-workings of oft-neglected titles from the songbooks of masters such as Bo Carter, Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Lemon Jefferson and one-man band Jesse Fuller as well as the more modern likes of Magic Sam, J.B. Lenoir, Django Reinhardt and Lightnin’ Slim. The just married pair (”I guess we’ve been a couple for about eight years,” Annie shyly comments) have also been busy building a repertoire of meritorious originals that atmospherically seem to share the stage well with their consistently well-chosen covers. I caught up with them recently on the road at the Comfort Suites in Saugerties, New York, in the Catskills Mountains from where they planned to hop over to Woodstock to assist long-time pal John Sebastian with a jug band video project. Paul started.

“I was born in 1950 in Brooklyn, New York. My father worked for Esso Standard Oil so as a child I moved around a lot. We lived in Brooklyn and Astoria for a few years, then in New Jersey and England, then Connecticut for a while before moving up to Cambridge, Massachusetts, when I was twenty years old. My mother was a closet musician. I didn’t even know she played piano until I’d been playing guitar for a few years,” a reflective Rishell comments and then recalls listening avidly to his older sister’s rock ‘n’ roll 45 collection (”lots of Elvis, Little Richard, The Chiffons and the Everly Brothers”) as well as sitting in on drums at the age of ten in an Austrian lounge band.

“Before I turned sixteen and got my first guitar it was all drums for me–playing at school dances, small clubs and college gigs and listening to jazz percussionists like Max Roach, Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich as well as Count Basie, Dave Brubeck and r&b and rock music. But toward the tail end of 1963 a friend going away to college gave me an album of bluesman Son House’s 1941-1942 Library of Congress recordings and that kind of pulled it all together for me-I’d been listening to Charlie Parker and Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Duke Ellington and everything in between but I hadn’t really heard where it all came from. Of course, it helped that none of my friends liked it at all. That made it even more exciting,” he adds.

“When I got a guitar, the blues was pretty much all I was interested in. The Beatles and Stones had arrived by then, of course, but I was also trying to play anything I heard by Robert Johnson or Son House. I was on my own–I had no idea about open tunings or anything–there was no books or videos you could get back then. But by the time I moved up to Cambridge in 1970, I had figured out enough stuff that I pretty much got work right away, either doing studio sessions playing slide guitar or adding a blues edge to songs by various writers as well as hanging out with the older blues guys like Johnny Shines, Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Rush or Albert Collins when they came to town to play at bars like Joe’s Place, the Speakeasy or Jonathan Swift’s in Harvard Square. Sometimes, I’d get to warm them up or play in their ” backup bands. At 22, I actually got a chance to play with Son House for three days,” he recalls and colorfully describes the tail-end of the once bustling Boston/ Cambridge folk scene, centered around colorful Inman Square along with local mover and shaker, manager and promoter Dick Waterman. “Dick was a big help to me early on. In 1972 1 got a phone call to come up to his office. I thought he wanted me to rehearse a song with Bonnie Raitt or Peter C. Johnson and when I got there I saw an old guy sitting around watching television and it was Son House. Dick had booked him into a club and just wanted me to sit and play with him and cajole him into practicing a little. It was like a dream come true for me.”

Pretty much a guitar for hire during this period, Rishell played wherever and whenever he could locally in nameless soul, rock, oldies and surf pickup bands (”I wore various ill-fitting suits and even played the Playboy Clubs”) while woodshedding to focus on his blues guitar chops and “listening to all kinds of music, particularly of the antiquated sort … I love everything from English music hall music from the 1890s and calypso music from the 1920s to all kinds of jazz, blues and country music,” he amplified.

“About 1975, I began doing solo gigs in coffeehouses in and around Boston. I was pretty much the only one playing country blues exclusively. Bob Margolin was living there at the time, but he wasn’t playing acoustic. I’d open for bluesmen like John Lee Hooker, Robert Pete Williams or Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee among others. By the early 1980s, I was fronting an eponymous bar band. I had a bass player and a drummer and we’d try different things, fool around with different sounds. We had a steady Sunday night gig at the blue-collar Inman Square Men’s Bar … right across the street from Joe’s Place, where I’d played with all the old blues fellows. Musicians like Ronnie Earl, Gatemouth Brown and lots of rock ‘n’ roll guys used to sit in with us and jam. It was a great learning experience,” he continues, hinting at a wealth of good stories from those days.

We are blessed. We live under church bells. Three times a day they stop us in our tracks and remind us who’s Who. How do they do this time after time, every time, without ever losing us or boring us? With three single gongs sounded breathlessly apart in blessed silence; like hearing the whisper of God in the wind.

It’s nothing new. Monks have been marking their days with such music from the first centuries of Christianity. The morning, noon and evening prayers of Angelus are, of course, a short form of the monks’ seven-part divine office. At such times, we are lifted out of our concerns of the moment. Or rather, the concerns themselves are wordlessly sanctified.

No, nothing new. And not that unique to our particular worshiping club, it must be said. Reverent Buddhists hearken as well to sacred bells. And, though their call to prayer takes human form, don’t devout Muslims stop five times a day to do something similar?

But over the years, after ringing the Angelus, the bells of our parish have taken up a new–and decidedly less compelling–pealing, something much less transcendent and much less enduring. Certainly there’s a place for hymnody, but it is probably not a bell tower three times a day to the non-soliciting ears, miles around, of a dense mixed neighborhood.

If that wasn’t bad enough, for the past two weeks these same bells have seen fit to blare forth patriotic (so-called) hymns. Three times a day, every day. Why it’s enough to raise Constantine himself from the grave in disgust!

It’s time to give these bells–and all of us–a rest. Time perhaps to recall the words of our own poet-monk, Thomas Merton in his Thoughts in Solitude. “Bells … speak to us of our freedom, which responsibilities and transient cares make us forget. They are the voice of alliance with the God of heaven…. They call us to peace with him and within ourselves.”

Hearing loss is one of the four leading chronic conditions for older persons (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1991). The rate of occurrence of this condition increases dramatically with age (Wax & Di Pietro, 1984). Census figures for 1989 report the rate of hearing loss among people age 45 to 64 to be approximately 13%, age 65 to 74 to be 24%, and age 75+ to be 36% (National Center for Health Statistics, 1990). Other researchers have found the prevalence of hearing impairment in older adults to be much higher than that suggested by the Census, with estimates ranging from 50% (Wax & Di Pietro) to 74% (Davis, 1983).

Because the percentage of older persons who have hearing losses is large, service providers, family members, and persons in this older age range need to be familiar with the experiential and phenomenological aspects of this condition. The purpose of the current article is to provide information regarding intrapersonal experiences and psychosocial implications associated with late onset hearing loss. It is hoped that such information will result in increased sensitivity to the emotions and challenges faced by older persons who experience hearing loss.

Although a number of terms have been used to describe hearing loss that occurs in adulthood (i.e., adventious deafness, late deafness, acquired hearing loss); the term, presbycusis, is generally used to describe the hearing loss of older persons (Agnew, 1986; Brooks, 1989; Kampfe & Smith, 1997, in press; McFarland & Cox, 1985; Stein & Bienenfeld, 1992; Williams, 1984). Presbycusis refers to a wide range of problems associated with auditory deterioration (Hull, 1977; Stein & Bienenfeld; Williams). Hearing loss in older people is thought to be the result of a combination of a variety of factors. These include an accumulation of many degenerative changes that relate to the aging process itself (Agnew; Brooks; McFarland & Cox; Williams), to zinc deficiency (Shambaugh, 1989), to medication (Agnew; Brooks), to heredity, to environmental conditions, and to other health conditions (McFarland & Cox,). The deterioration of heating associated with degenerative changes is thought to progress at such a slow rate that the individual usually is not aware that the heating loss is occuring or of the extent of its effects (Stein & Bienenfeld).

Because of the variety of physiological changes associated with this degenerative condition, a diagnosis of presbycusis fails to communicate much information about the disorder. Although several hypotheses exist regarding the physiological aspects of presbycusis; the inner ear, specifically the cochlea, and nerve pathways leading to the brain are generally and most often considered to be the primary sites of the degenerative process. Damage in the inner ear creates a sensorineural loss and results in difficulty in hearing high frequency sounds (Brooks, 1989; McFarland & Cox, 1985; Williams, 1984). A high frequency loss affects the ability to hear consonants; and because consonants are important elements of speech, the high frequency loss can cause difficulty in understanding spoken conversation, especially when there is background noise (Hallberg, Erlandsson, & Carlsson, 1992). The psychosocial effects of such loss can easily be contemplated by considering the difference in communication that may result when the person understands the missing word in the sentence, “I’m really–!” to be “bad” or “mad.”

Typically, the loss of hearing associated with presbycusis occurs in both ears (Williams, 1984), but the extent of loss in each ear may vary. For example, one ear may be exposed to environmental conditions such as right ear exposure to mechanical noise while working with a machine that is on the worker’s right hand side. Deterioration associated with this noise-induced hearing loss may occur either separately or in addition to other deterioration related to aging/use.

In addition to difficulty in actual hearing, persons with sensorineural hearing loss will experience distortions in what they do hear. As a result, even when they hear speech, they may not be able to understand it or they may misunderstand it (McFarland & Cox, 1985). Furthermore, external sounds may be misinterpreted resulting in misconceptions of environmental cues (Hull, 1977; Luey, 1980; Ramsdell, 1978). These problems result in differential hearing (i.e., seeming to hear sometimes and not other times). Variance in perceived hearing may result from differing environmental conditions, differing personal conditions, or differing interpersonal conditions. Common environmental conditions that may exacerbate problems with hearing acuity include inappropriate lighting (Kampfe, 1990), distortion of sound waves bouncing off of certain materials (Brinson, 1983), and introduction of extraneous sounds such as group conversations or background noises (i.e., air conditioners, dishwashers, vaccuum cleaners, music) (Hallberg, et al., 1992; Thomsett & Nickerson, 1993). Personal variables that can influence heating acuity include familiarity with the context of the conversation (Kampfe; Thomsett & Nickerson), current energy level (Luey; Orlans, 1987; Thomsett & Nickerson), medication (Thomsett & Nickerson), visual acquity (Brinson; Luey, Belser, & Glass, n.d.), and other psychological and physical factors (Luey; Thomsett & Nickerson). Comprehension can also be greatly affected by interpersonal variables such as the expressiveness, clarity, and rapidity of the speaker (Kampfe) and familiarity and relationship with the speaker (Orlans; Thomsett & Nickerson).

Accomplished performing musicians must pay close attention to many musical elements simultaneously. One might ask, “Am I observing all the composer’s indications in the score?” “Are notes articulated clearly and intelligibly?” “As much as possible, is my interpretation in keeping with accepted stylistic performance practices?” “Am I communicating with the listener on a personal level?” “Am I consistently coaxing the most beautiful, varied, engaging sounds possible from my instrument or voice?” Musicians address such questions and countless others each time they launch into practice sessions, rehearsals or performances. In addition, pianists, whether soloing or collaborating with other musicians, must pay close attention to what commonly is called “voicing” or “balance”; they must bring musical lines of greatest import to the fore while subduing subordinate ones. Mastery of this difficult and often-neglected skill can separate merely good pianists from those who are genuinely exceptional.

Why is voicing so important for pianists? One answer is that, while the modern piano’s timbre is the same throughout its entire pitch range, most pianists, for greater tonal variety and coloristic appeal, wish to imitate the timbral diversity of ensembles such as orchestras, choirs or string quartets. But when listening to an orchestra, for instance, one’s ears can readily differentiate the timbres of various instruments playing solo lines or similarly important material. The volume levels of supporting lines must be monitored carefully, of course, to avoid drowning out those more important, but composers adept at orchestration often utilize the orchestra’s numerous timbres to help highlight significant lines. Pianists must rely more heavily on differing volume levels to distinguish voices. By doing so, however, they can create the illusion of having a wider variety of pianistic “touches” and a breadth of sonorous possibilities matching the broad spectrum of pitches their instrument is capable of producing.

Balancing voices adeptly may positively impact the listener’s perception of a pianist’s tone production as well. Unlike most instrumentalists, pianists must perform on whatever instrument is made available to them. Some pianos have lovely tones, while some do not, and pianists have very limited control over the tone quality of any one pitch. Those who have mastered how best to play notes relative to one another, however, give the impression of actually drawing more beautiful sounds from the instrument, overcoming, to an extent, the tonal shortcomings that may exist in some pianos. Similarly, the “singing tone” pianists prize is, in part, the result of keeping accompanimental material in its proper place while presenting melodic material with a full, round tone. Theodor Leschetizky, renowned teacher of Ignace Paderewski, Artur Schnabel and countless other great pianists who thrived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, described his reaction to a recital given around 1850 in Vienna by Bohemian pianist Julius Schulhoff:

Under his hands the piano sounded like another instrument…. I began to
foresee a new style of playing. That melody standing out in bold relief,
that wonderful sonority–all this must be due to a new and entirely
different touch. And that cantabile … a human voice rising above the
sustaining harmonies! I could hear the shepherd sing, and see him. (1)

It seems clear the young Leschetizky’s overwhelmingly positive reaction to Schulhoff’s playing was the result, at least in part, of the latter’s ability to balance voices exceedingly well, forging a wide range of timbres and a radiant, expressive tone.

Projection of musical character also hinges, to a degree, on how lines are balanced against one another. A pianist may change the musical tone from dark to bright by simply bringing out higher pitches slightly more than usual, producing more sparkling, penetrating sonorities. Conversely, a heavier bass line can produce a darker, more ominous hue. The third of a triad may be emphasized above its root or fifth to create a “sweeter” quality in a dolce passage. Such coloristic possibilities are limited only by the performer’s listening skills and imagination.

The term “balance” takes on added meaning for collaborative pianists. When performing with additional musicians, one must consider not only the balance within one’s own part, but also the balance between all the performers. Let us, for convenience, focus on pieces written for a duo of one singer or instrumentalist and piano, since balance issues become more complex as chamber ensemble sizes increase. Perhaps the most important rule of thumb in duo settings is to avoid playing accompanimental material too loudly when it lies in the same register as the singer’s or instrumentalist’s pitches. If this principle is not adhered to, the pianist will rightly be accused of “covering” the other musician’s part. Inexperienced pianists may react by simply playing softly at all times. As a result, their playing goes from overbearing to dull and nondescript, and the overall impression the music makes upon the audience is severely compromised. The finest collaborators, however, can create true fortes when necessary while de-emphasizing specific parts of the texture that would otherwise interfere with their musical partner’s efforts. Pianists performing in collaborative settings must, as a rule, stress bass lines slightly more than in solo playing, for they often are called upon to supply the bass line, the harmonic foundation, for the entire ensemble and not just for themselves. This does not typically create balance problems, since pitches of lower frequencies tend not to mask those of higher frequencies. Listening and experience are indispensable in honing the exceptionally advanced voicing skills chamber music and accompanying require.

The effects on hearing thresholds, sound attenuation, and consonant discrimination of wearing a balaclava under hearing-protecting earmuffs were studied. This combination is commonly worn during cold weather military operations. One group of 20 normal-hearing adults (10 male and 10 female subjects) was tested. Within-subject measurements were made of diffuse-field hearing thresholds from 0.25 kHz to 8 kHz and consonant discrimination in quiet with the ears unoccluded and protected with the earmuffs alone and with the balaclava worn full face or rolled. Attenuation was derived from the protected and unoccluded thresholds at each frequency. When the balaclava was worn full face, attenuation decreased by 16 to 18 dB, relative to the muff alone, below 6.3 kHz. With the balaclava worn as a cap, there was an inverted U-shaped decrement in attenuation of 18 to 27 dB from 0.25 Hz to 4 kHz. Consonant discrimination decreased by 7% with the muffs alone. These findings underscore the importance of assessing protective equipment under the conditions in which it will be worn.

Standards for personal protective equipment typically provide guidelines for the evaluation, classification, selection, and use of classes of devices, such as respirators, eyeglasses, or hearing protectors.1-3 In practice, however, safety devices are generally worn in combination in both civilian and military operational environments. The Canadian standard on hearing protection, the subject of the present investigation, cautions that the performance of these devices may be compromised by other equipment worn around the head.4 To date, however, only a few scientific studies have been conducted to determine the extent to which the combining of personal protectors may interfere with the components.5-7 Chung et al.,6 for example, investigated the effect on earmuff attenuation of long hair over the ears, either alone or with glasses or a thin or thick cap. The stimulus was 103-dBA pink noise (equal energy per octave). Decrements in insertion loss, the difference in the physical measurements of sound levels inside and outside the ear cup,8 relative to short hair alone, were highly variable across subjects. They ranged, on average, from 2 dB for long hair to 13 dB for long hair with a thick cap. More recently, Abel et al.7 measured the effects on earmuff attenuation of safety glasses and/or an air-purifying half-mask respirator worn in combination, using the real-ear attenuation at threshold procedure.2 The sound attenuation observed for earmuffs worn alone decreased by 5 dB with either the glasses or respirator and by as much as 9 dB with both devices. Maximal decrements were observed below 1 kHz. The effect diminished with increases in the frequency of the test stimulus.

Decrements in attenuation observed in the studies cited above were attributed to leakage of sound under the ear cup of the hearing protector. Leakage results from any obstruction that precludes an airtight seal of the earmuff to the circumaural region surrounding the pinna of the ear.9 Crabtree10 modeled this scenario by using a passive earmuff and a flat plate coupler containing a measurement microphone. Measurements were confined to frequencies below 200 Hz. A 1.6-mm tube was inserted between the ear cushion and the coupler, to model the leakage that would be caused by the metal side frame of military-issue sunglasses worn under the muff. With an airtight seal, insertion loss increased from ~5 dB to ~30 dB with increases in frequency from 6 Hz to 137 Hz. With the tubing in place, there was virtually no attenuation below 100 Hz. In fact, negative insertion loss was observed in the region of 50 to 100 Hz, i.e., sound energy was amplified by 5 dB in the enclosed air space.

The decrement in sound attenuation attributable to sound leakage under the hearing protector may affect speech understanding. When hearing protectors are worn, subjects typically show a decrease in the percentage of words correctiy recognized, which is proportional to their difficulty in hearing the speech stimulus. The attenuation provided by the protector adds to unoccluded hearing thresholds. Improvements in speech understanding in noise with protectors worn were reported for normal-hearing subjects. This effect may result from reductions in cochlear overload and concomitant signal distortion with the overall decrease in the level of signal plus noise.9 In contrast, individuals with even mild hearing loss show decrements in speech understanding in noise.11 Although one might predict that sound leakage would improve performance, at least one study showed the reverse. Wagstaff et al.12 assessed the ability of normal-hearing male subjects to understand digits and words in 97-dBA helicopter noise while wearing a communication headset, with or without glasses. Performance was significantly poorer when the glasses were worn. The authors argued that breaking the seal of the earmuff resulted in greater low-frequency masking of the speech. In the study by Abel et al.,7 no differences in consonant discrimination were observed across ear conditions, either in quiet or in noise. The difference in outcomes for the two studies may be attributable to differences in the type of background noise (low-frequency vs. speech spectrum) and/or differences in the noise level (97 dBA vs. 80 dB sound pressure level [SPL]).

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE once remarked that “Plato was a bore,” but this snooty remark merely confirms the madman’s madness. Alfred North Whitehead concluded, boring or not, that “the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”

In the voice of his master Socrates, Plato bestowed upon his intellectual descendants the branches of speculative philosophy. In the Phaedo, his great discourse on the immortality of the soul, Socrates asserts (while slowly dying of poison), “I cannot imagine anything more self-evident than the fact that absolute beauty and goodness and all the rest … exist in the fullest possible sense.” Ever since, Westerners have pondered whether these absolute things do exist–and what that could possibly mean. In the same dialogue, Socrates wonders, “Is there any certainty in human sight and hearing, or is it true, as the poets are always dinning into our ears, that we neither hear nor see anything accurately?” Philosophers have argued ever after whether sensory input aids or arrests the quest for knowledge.

Socrates has no doubts about what puts the distance between him and the pure knowledge of pure being for which he longs. It’s his body. His soul is always being led astray in its search for truth, because his body attracts distractions. Socrates lists them: “diseases which attack and hinder us in our quest for reality…. The body fills us with loves and desires and tears and all sorts of fancies and a great deal of nonsense…. Wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires.”

The prospect of gaining anything like true knowledge of absolute things is pretty meager. Reflection, the pure thought of the soul, might get us there. But it means that “we must get rid of the body.” Such an effort in this life will be partial at best, as long as we are “contaminated with this imperfection.” Whether we like it or not, “the wisdom which we desire and upon which we profess to have set our hearts will be attainable only when we are dead.” This is the optimistic view, by the way–that the soul released upon death will be able to acquire knowledge–because the alternative is that we’ll never know anything really real at all.

Meanwhile, we should “avoid … all contact and association with the body, except when they are absolutely necessary, and instead of allowing ourselves to become infected with its nature, purify ourselves from it until God gives us deliverance.” Purity of life secures access to purity of truth. Socrates insists: there is no other way.

Enter John the evangelist. He is trying to describe an event, an advent, an epiphany without parallel in the history of the cosmos. A being of absolute beauty and goodness has been made manifest upon the earth. He could be seen–heard–touched. He spoke directly of the singular truth. He was indeed pure: a spotless lamb. How to describe such a being? To call him simply a man is to fail to recognize him for who he truly is. There’s no other word for it: he is the Logos.

As any philosophically educated Greek of the time knew, “Logos” doesn’t just mean “word” in a literal or even in a lively metaphorical sense. It’s more along the lines of “the rational principle of the universe.” It’s the underlying pattern of the cosmic fabric, the warp and weft by which all things hang together. It’s why things make sense–the reason cause follows effect–the law of noncontradiction–the creative mind that accounts for why there is something rather than nothing. Because the Logos is, everything else is too. Above change, beyond time, outside of space: prepositions break down in the face of the Logos. It’s the first and final cause of the whole created world.

Now John describes this unique person of his as the Logos. More specifically, he claims that “the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us.” If anyone ever wanted to dream up something that would be foolishness to the Greeks, John has outdone him. What he is saying is preposterous. It’s like saying “the circle be came square” or “infinity” became zero.” It can’t become the latter while still remaining the former. More to the point, it’s like saying, “Purity became filth and dwelt among us.” It’s not only absurd; it’s offensive. The Logos would never: ever saddle itself with a distracting, misleading body. That would defeat the whole purpose of being the Logos, and would permanently destroy any chance at tree knowledge. By Plato’s standards, John couldn’t possibly be right.

Of course, John isn’t the only one to disagree with Plato. A certain student by the name of Aristotle did too. Lacking his master’s certainty in absolute forms without any substance, delighted with all the things he could discover by his senses, Aristotle became the first empiricist, by and large indifferent to anything he couldn’t hem, smell or feel. The body is the real house of the soul, he insisted, and nothing gets to the soul–not pure knowledge and not an>thing else–without the vital mediation of the flesh. If you croft see it, how do you know it; really there?

Washington Post columnist Amy Joyce writes Life at Work on Sundays in the Business section and appears online every Tuesday. In her weekly chat she gives advice on how to handle social and professional situations.

An archive of Amy’s Life at Work columns is available online.

Find more career-related news and advice in our Jobs section.

Amy Joyce: Good morning, all. It’s Tuesday, which means it’s time to talk about our life at work. As always, join in with your own advice and stories to help fellow readers along.

If you’ve been following this chat, you know I’m due to write a column about evaluations (it’s that time of year.) If you’re willing to share a story about a good or bad evaluation with me, using your name, I’m all ears: E-mail me at lifeatwork@washpost.com. I’m also interested in hearing from you managers about how you figure out how to do a “good” (i.e.: helpful) evaluation. I know it ain’t easy.

Alrighty, then. Let’s discuss….

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Upper Marlboro, Md.: I’m in a graduate program that I really, really do not like and my job is paying for it. After this semester, I plan to discontinue the program. However, some people are saying I should continue the program since my job is paying for it and since a graduate degree is a necessity. It is only my first year, but I find the classes to be difficult and boring. Do you think stopping the program will hurt my chances of getting into future graduate programs or having my employer pay for them?

Amy Joyce: If you stick with it and hate it, you’re wasting not only your own time, but your employer’s money. If you’re sure you don’t like it and don’t think this degree is anything you’ll use in the future, then save everyone the time and money and stop. Wait until you’re sure what you want to do before you dive in to another grad program. It’s just too expensive and time consuming to do if you hate it.

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Washington, D.C.: Any tips for managing a transition after a layoff? I’m downshifting to part-time work and close to full-time parenting. I’m a bit worried about culture shock after working for more than 20 years.

Amy Joyce: It will be a culture shock, for sure. Try to recognize that right away. The highs of work will be fewer. But that will be filled with other things. If you like the camaraderie of working, make sure on your days off you do a few things that will keep you on that track. Plan to meet friends, contacts, etc. Enjoy the kids, but know that it will be tough. Anyone else want to chime in with your experiences?

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Pittsburgh, Pa.: Amy, Why are companies so hard-line about requiring a degree, but willing to dismiss extensive experience? Is there any way to get your foot in the door without a degree? Thanks — Frustrated with/ experience

Amy Joyce: I think it’s the one measure they all can agree on or be sure of. Yes, experience should count for a lot and oftentimes, it does. But if you’re trying to get in somewhere new, it is difficult without a degree, particularly if the company is looking at two candidates: One with a lot of experience and a degree. Or one with a lot of experience.

Any chance you want to go back to school?

If not, getting in will take what it takes for anyone: Networking. Make sure your former colleagues, clients, friends, family members know that you’re looking. Your experience and good work in the past may be enough for them to suggest you for a job elsewhere. Get out and go to networking events. Let people know what experience you have and what you’ve accomplished. You never know when and where you’ll meet someone who is a potential in to a job — degree or not.

Good luck.

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Falls Church, Va.: Amy — What’s the best way to approach a co-worker about an air freshener that is stinking up the office? This co-worker of mine has recently started using one of those “plug-in” air fresheners and the odor permeates the entire office. I get hit with a blast of it as soon as I open the door and I can smell it as I try to eat my lunch, etc. How can I get rid of this thing without coming off like a jerk? Thanks!

Amy Joyce: “Hi, Joe. Listen, I hate to be a pain, but that air freshener is way too strong. Is there any way you can get something that isn’t so potent? Thanks.”

Really. Just say something. Otherwise, you’ll start detesting this co-worker for something they don’t know they’re doing.

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washingtonpost.com: The Redskins Could Learn From Business (Post, Oct. 22)

Amy Joyce: This was Sunday’s column, for all you Skins fans (or not).

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Philadelphia, Pa.: Hi Amy, I’m currently in the process of applying for a new job (interview tomorrow!). I am very close with a co-worker, but have not told her anything about this because I figure it’s better if she knows nothing (in case I do end up leaving and they ask her questions). Especially as there are only 8 of us in the company. Is it right to keep her in the dark? It’s killing me not telling her…thanks!

Surfers off the Northern California coast pay a heavier price to follow their passion than most of their peers worldwide.

Never mind the menacing great white sharks hunting off the coast. Every day surfers hit the waves, they face a more immediate foe: cold water that spurs strange bony growths inside their ear canals, leading sometimes to severe hearing loss. The condition is called “surfer’s ear,” and it disproportionately affects California surfers, particularly those in Northern California, according to Dr. Douglas Hetzler, a Santa Cruz physician who has developed a minimally invasive technique using tiny chisels for clearing the ears of the bony protrusions.

“I hear people saying that, ‘Damn, we’ve been surfing this cold water so long,’” said Tony Poloni, 39, speaking of his circle of surfing friends.

Poloni, a Burlingame real estate agent, has been riding waves in the region since he was 16 and has had two surgeries to treat surfer’s ear. Waters along the Northern California coast, chilled by a sub-arctic current, typically range from 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

“I’d love to live in a warm surfing climate,” he added wistfully.

One study reported that 86 percent of 251 California surfers examined had some degree of surfer’s ear. About 1 in 10 had more than 75 percent obstruction in one of their ear canals from the bony blockages.

Since the 1870s, the remedy for the condition — which also affects swimmers, sailors, kayakers and others regularly exposed to cold water — has been a drilling operation. With that technique, doctors cut behind the ear to enter the ear canal and grind down the bony bumps.

But in the late 1990s, Hetzler began searching for a better way to treat the condition, technically called exostosis, as the noisy drilling process itself could damage hearing.

In addition, the drilling procedure risks injuring the eardrum and the delicate skin lining the ear canal, a hazard Hetzler wanted to reduce. In a 2007 study in the journal Laryngoscope on outcomes with 140 of his patients, he reported lower rates of these complications than with the drilling operation.

Hetzler, however, emphasized that the drilling procedure can be highly effective. “It’s possible to do the operation with the drill and do it well,” he said. “The chiseling is an easier way, in my opinion, to do the operation.”

Hetzler perfected a system using 1 mm chisels to directly enter the ear canal without an incision, and to peel away the bony growths, which accumulate in layers like an onion. And he’s able to do so without damaging the thin skin of the inner ear, dramatically speeding healing times. The slender tools also allow him to view the innards of the ear canal.

“It didn’t take a huge number of patients to realize this is workable,” said Hetzler. The 2007 study he authored reported that 90 percent of the 140 patients he treated with the technique recovered within four weeks.

While most doctors treating surfer’s ear still use the drilling system, Hetzler now avoids it, relying entirely on the chiseling system he helped to innovate.

Hetzler, who works with the Santa Cruz Medical Foundation, said the procedure is often covered by insurers.

Doctors, including Hetzler, urge surfers to wear earplugs and neoprene hoods that cover ears, but many ignore the advice until the bone growth starts.

“Wearing a hood, you don’t look cool,” said Poloni, adding, “Me, I wear a hood every time, unless it’s really warm.”

The earplugs also alter the experience of surfing, Hetzler added, since hearing is diminished. Poloni, however, doesn’t mind that part. “I think you’re more focused on watching the waves than hearing what’s going on,” he said.

And Turner, with Cowboy Surf Shop, said earplugs are in demand with the store’s clientele.

Poloni noted that younger surfers often don’t wear ear protection. Surfers, he said, typically start doing so after they notice the bony growth beginning, which generally takes at least five years of regular exposure in cold water to trigger.

“They kind of do it after the fact,” he said.

With the rising popularity of surfing worldwide, Hetzler noted, including in cold water regions such as Ireland, demand for surgical treatment of surfer’s ear is bound to rise, he predicted.

Poloni predicted the same trend, noting the dramatic increase in the number of surfers in Pacifica, his main surfing destination. “He’s going to have a lot of demand for his services in the next 10 years,” Poloni said of Hetzler.

inter-noise 2006, the 35st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering, will be held at the Sheraton-Waikiki Hotel, Honolulu, Hawaii, December 3-6. This congress immediately follows the Fourth Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Acoustical Society of Japan, November 28-December 2. Hundreds of technical papers are scheduled on a variety of noise and vibration control topics. Jointly organized by INCE-USA and INCE-Japan, information on inter.noise 2006 and conference proceedings are available at: www.internoise2006.org.

There will be an exhibition with over 55 vendors. Use the Reader-Service Card in this issue to request information from any of the exhibitors listed below. Your request will be forwarded to the exhibitors.

ACO Pacific will exhibit SLARM(TM) and SLARMNet(TM) community and environmental sound level alarm and monitor systems, 3025 and 3026USB “Very Extremely Random”(TM) noise generators, 4048 and 7052PH phantom-powered products and ICP1248 phantom power to IEPE converter, the MATT(TM) in-line microphone attenuator family, and the WS-80T outdoor windscreen family. Type 1 and Type 1.5(TM) 1 inch, ½ inch and ¼ inch measurement microphones, PS9200KIT (1/2 Inch) and PS9200KIT-1/4 (1/4 inch) microphone ‘Kits/ ACOustic Interface(TM), and Simple Intensity(TM) sound intensity probes will also be displayed. RS #151

Acticut International is the holding company for Axiom EduTech, Pinocchio Data Systems (PDS) and Acticut. On display will be Axiom EduTech’s VibraTools Suite(TM) for acoustic and vibration applications, PDS smart sensors and unique monitoring systems, and Acticut’s patented technology for reducing noise and vibration in the cutting industry. RS #192

AFM-UltraScreen sight and sound barrier systems will be displayed. They can be used for transportation, industrial screening, and residential boundary fencing and can be ground or structure mounted. Both sound-reflective and sound-absorbing designs will be shown. RS #153

Amorim Industrial Solutions provides sound control underlayments for hard surface flooring installations in multi-family housing applications, under the brand name of AcoustiCORK. RS #194

Brigade Electronics will show back-up alarms that function effectively in high background noise environments. RS #199

Brüel and Kjær offers multichannel solutions for structural analysis, material testing, sound quality, production test, quality control, noise source location, and acoustic holography. Products include analysis software, transducers for both vibration and acoustic measurements, sound level meters, analyzers, shakers and controllers. Brüel and Kjaar also offers world-class service and calibration, educational seminars, and application consulting at the new Application Research Center in Canton, MI. RS #156

BSWA Technology Co., Ltd. offers: 1/ 2-inch IEC 61672 Class 1 microphone MP201, 1/2-inch IEC 61672 Class 2 microphones MP205/206, 1/2-inch microphone preamplifier MA211,1/4-inch IEC 61672 Class 1 array microphone (with preamplifier) MPA416, USB Soundcard with ICP® input MC3022, tapping machine TM002; impedance tube SW002, omni-sound source OS002, and ICP® power supply MC102. RS #157

Casella USA will be displaying a range of sound level meters and noise dosimeters including the all new GEL-350 dBadge unit. Also on display will be the CEL-200, 300, 400, and 500 series instruments suitable for a wide range of measurement tasks. RS #158

CESVA Instruments will exhibit sound level meters, real-time spectrum analyzers, condenser microphones, sound sources, a tapping machine, and sound limiters. RS #159

Cirrus Research plc will be showing the new CR:514 and CR:515 acoustic calibrators and the doseBadge system. A full range of occupational and environmental noise instrumentation including the CR:261S vehicle noise analyzer will be demonstrated. RS #160

Commercial Acoustics Div., Metal Form Mfg. noise control solutions feature silencers, acoustical panels, and enclosures. RS #161

Concrete Solutions, Inc. licenses SoundSorb cementitious exterior sound absorption material. This material has the unique capability of achieving high noise reduction coefficient, replicates virtually any texture design or pattern, and is durable in all climate zones. The material easily achieves any texture and can be cast in custom-sized panels and retro-fit panels. RS #162

Data Physics will exhibit SignalCalc dynamic signal analyzers, SignalStar vibration exciter control systems, and SignalForce electrodynamic shakers. Data Physics has been supplying high-performance test and measurement solutions for over 20 years. RS #163

DataKustik GmbH will show CadnaA software for prediction of outdoor noise propagation, CadnaSAK software for prediction of indoor noise propagation, and BASTIAN software for prediction of sound insulation in buildings. RS #164

Degussa/CYRO Industries will display transparent Paraglas Soundstop® noise barrier systems for blocking highway noise while preserving scenic views and natural landscapes. RS #165

No one expects to be greeted by a Shakespearean actor when discussing their vehicle’s service needs, but they do expect to be part of a conversation they can understand.

Recently I had to phone our waste disposal company to arrange to have an old sofa picked up. The customer service rep I spoke with was pleasant and knew her job, but slurred her words badly. I knew mere was a charge for the service and when I asked how much, I couldn’t tell if the answer was $15 or $50. We went back and forth several times: I heard what sounded like “filthy dollars” and “filbu dollars” but nothing sounded close enough to make me sure that it was fifteen and not fifty dollars.

Finally, I had to apologize for not understanding and ask if it was one-five or five-zero dollars. It felt like I was embarrassing the agent, which wasn’t my intent, and she probably thought I was either hard of hearing or just being a smart aleck.

Whether on the telephone or in person, this sort of thing has probably happened to you, too. You ask a question and, when a response is given, the sounds that come out of the respondent’s mouth are incomprehensible. Just as bad, the person’s diction and enunciation are perfect, but the reply is unclear, incomplete or has nothing at all to do with the question you just posed.

That’s exactly what happened during a recent trip to our city hall to pick up an absentee ballot for the November elections. Business was slow the day I stopped by, and no one in the clerks office seemed to be in a big hurry for anything. When asked, I gave my name. The clerk then walked to another room and reappeared five minutes later with a form. After checking off the box saying I’d be out of town on Election Day, and signing on the dotted line, I handed the paperwork back. The woman took it, looked at me and said: “We’ll get the ballot right to you.” At that moment, I assumed she needed to make another trip to the back room to get my ballot-which I vaguely recalled as the procedure from past years-but instead we just stood there staring at each other.

“Do you have to leave soon?” she asked.

“No,” I replied, “I can wait a few minutes.” The stare I received in return told me she thought I was nuts.

“When are you leaving on your trip?”

“Oh,” I said, “not for another week or so. Do you mean you’re going to mail the ballot to me?” She said “yes,” and we laughed together at the misunderstanding.

In your business, you can never forget the importance of clear communication with your customers. Misunderstandings brought about by poor communication will result in lost productivity and lost business.

It’s not necessary to be a skilled public speaker to be a good communicator. Over the years I’ve taught myself to listen when I speak. It may sound silly, but give it a try. The next time you’re speaking to someone, exert equal focus on the words coming out of your mouth as the sounds going into your ears. You may be surprised to hear your speech slow down a bit as you become more thoughtful about what you’re saying.

It’s equally important to stress the role of good communications within your business. Permitting one type of casual dialogue among employees and expecting everyone to flip the switch to a more professional delivery for customers is not a good practice.

There’s a radio ad for a speaking course, whose tag line is “People judge you by the way you speak,” and I believe that’s true. When making an impression on customers, it’s as important as the appearance of your shop, and yourself. No one expects you to sound like a professional actor, but people don’t want to think you’d charge them filby dollars for an oil change either.