MY BACK PAGES

THIS ISSUE: How did the voices get inside that little box? As Herb Reichert sees it (and hears it), the truest answer to that question has as much to do with training as technology.

The ghost in the machine

The crying rain like a trumpet sang And asked for no applause

—Bob Dylan, “Lay Down Your Weary Tune”

I remember as a toddler sitting in the kitchen on a highchair, watching my mother smoke a cigarette, apply red lipstick, and tune a turquoise table radio from one news