Myst and Riven are coming out in a $50 combined CD-ROM edition, celebrating Myst's 55 months in the Top 10. Myst has brought in $143M, with earnings at 191 times cost. Windows 95 has revenues of $544M, but earnings are only 1.8 times cost. [Newsweek, 02Nov98, p. 10.] (Great to play with a significant other. .)

Some ideas from last December: For your kids, perhaps, get inkjet printer T-shirt transfer papers from HP, Canon, and Hayes. (Apple Stylewriters use HP and Canon engines.) Another artistic touch is Email Effects, a $10 Mac/Windows graphics package for creating signatures and pictures using ASCII characters. (For email sigs, but could be printed on T-shirts!) . A mouse pad is an inexpensive gift, and the best may be the Precise Mousing Surface from 3M. . A cordless headset can also be a thoughtful gift. . For the traveler, an AlphaSmart 2000 keyboard runs 300 hours on 3 AA batteries, storing text for upload to a Mac or PC. . And for fun, check your local pagan-oriented shop for monitor gargoyles to ward off software conflicts. [TidBITS, 12/97.]

US Mensa Boutique offers games for the intelligent, including Sagarian, Quoridor, Set, Take 6, Rush Hour, Stops, and Continuo. (603) 286-7467 fax for a free catalog. (I couldn't find a website.) See also the beautiful puzzles from Kadon Games, . [Bruce Glassford , mensa.talk.misc, 12Sep98. Bill Park.]

-- Ken