Here's a little ethical question for you...

My friend Lisa runs Hungry Girl, a site and daily newsletter full of diet hints and tricks.

A few weeks ago in a page of tips regarding the Starbucks menu, she wrote the following...

Hungry Girl Super Saver! If you want an Iced Caffe Americano or Iced Caffe Latte, it'll run you about $3.65. If you order an "Iced Dopio" (which is the exact same thing as the Americano, and the same as the Latte, minus the milk) with a shot of SF vanilla, Starbucks will just charge for the espresso shots (Dopio) and vanilla individually. That comes out to just $1.65. And if you want to turn that drink into a Latte, add milk from the coffee bar. This little trick will save you $2.00. Woohoo!

Lisa soon received an irate email from a coffee shop manager. This person said they felt it was wrong for customers to do this because the coffee bar is provided for people to fix up their coffee, and not as a means of creating menu items. This person also felt it was wrong of Lisa to pass along the tip to her thousands of subscribers.

This incident raised a lot of questions... Is a paying customer completely justified in doing this or anything else they want at the fixin's bar? If not, at what point is going too far? Is this tip as equally justified at a local mom & pop coffee shop? How would you feel about all of this if YOU were the owner of the coffee shop? Is this tip appropriate to be passed along to thousands of people? Does that even matter? Etc...

Lisa, her husband and I are all very curious to see what you think. (Also, I know opinions tend to run strongly about Starbucks, so I'm asking that we all please stay on topic and not let this slip into a coffee chain vs. coffee chain bash-fest. Thanks!)

The comment board is now CLOSED.

No reply from NBC, CBS and UPN. That's okay. There's lots of great networks out there...

Dear Oxygen, BET and Gameshow Network,

Hello, fellas. As you may recall, when it came to haircuts, NBC hit it big in the 90's with "The Rachel" and "The Clooney." No one has really stepped up to own the 2000's yet, and that's where I come in.

I'm looking for the right network to team up with to create The Steve! Do I have a TV show? Nope. Do I have a website? Yes! Is it weird that I'm writing to the three of you at once? Yes-- weirdly GENIUS! That's what I do! I think so far outside the box, I look around and I don't even see the box anymore.

So, who's it gonna be? Who's gonna get their crack team of hair people working with me on the next haircut that'll be on the lips of every man woman, tranny and child in this nutty ball we call Earth?

Will it be you, Oxygen? C'mon! That's a no-brainer. You know you chicks with the hair.

Or how about you, BET? Let's bridge the gap between the races. That would be both totally awesome AND phat!

Or maybe it'll be Game Show -- Seriously, think about it guys. Match Game rocks, but do you think I'm getting my hair cut like Brett Somers anytime soon? I'll let you fill in the blank: "N. O. SPELLS: __"

I await your reply(s)... (ies)... (replies).

Let's do this!

--Steve

P.S. I'm equally comfortable with both comb and brush.

I'm not a fancy audiophile with a $20,000 stereo, but I'm into music enough to have suspected that the stock Apple iPod earphones are pretty lame. I felt they could simply sound better and after a few hours of listening, they'd just start to hurt my ears.

Some of you will remember awhile back when I asked for advice about higher-end earphones. I was inundated with conflicting suggestions and advice, and probably ended up more confused than when I started.

I had also received several emails from people asking to let them know if and when I landed on a pair. I finally did, and that pair was the Etymotic 6i Isolater Earphones. They are in-ear phones that were specifically designed for iPods and mp3 players, and I love them. I found Etymotic after I had heard Leo LaPorte mention that he uses their products.

I've had these earphones for a few weeks now, and they have just grown and grown on me. It took awhile for me to get used to the more invasive in-your-ear-canal earplug style, but they're really comfortable. Since they create a seal to block outside noise, I found they initially gave me something of a "being underwater" feeling, but I got it used to that pretty quickly.

I had read several reviews of these types of phones not delivering enough bass, but I didn't find that to be a problem as long as they were inserted the right way. A good seal is crucial, and there's a bit of an art to it. If you're not dense like me and just follow the directions carefully the first time, it's not a problem. As far as the bass goes, the 6i's were designed to deliver a little more bass than other similar style earphones, so that helps too.

I don't know why, but I refused to believe that pulling up on your ear (like they show in the instructions) would actually affect your ear canal. But it does make a huge difference when putting them in.

The sound is really crisp and bright, but I wasn't immediately blown away by them. I only started to fully realize the difference after listening with them for a few weeks, and finally going back to the stock iPod pair. The iPod phones just sound so muddy to me now.

With certain songs, I feel like my ears got glasses. I've heard a lot more parts of songs that I just never noticed before. I've even been hearing things I'm not sure I want to hear. I have an album of mellow Sunday Morning coffee shop type acoustic guitar music. With the Etymotics I realized you can actually hear the guitarist breathing while he plays. It's a little creepy.

The 6i's come with soft flanged tips and also a set of squishy foam ones that expand in your ear to form the seal. I find the foam to be extremely comfortable.

If you are in the market for a high-end pair of earphones to replace the stock iPod phones, give the Etymotic 6i's a strong consideration. I swapped a number of emails with Etymotic and also found their customer service to be fantastic.

You can check out the entire Etymotic line of earphones on their main page, here.

I saw the gang at headphone.com loved them, as well.

Or you can check out the 6is on Amazon here, for under a hundred bucks.