This company has noise-cancelling earphones. [link] I've never used them myself, but I've used these [link] from the same company and liked them a lot. They go into your ear, blocking most external noise. I like them becaues I can actually hear my music while on the 'L' without having to crank the volume.

The Apple Store sells them....

Thanks!

Why does Google not tell me up front when its results don't contain the term I'm searching for? I click on the link, text search the page, and nothing. Then I go back, click on "cached" to be told that it exists "only in links pointing to this page."

Well, seems my search terms only exist in links, and not in actual pages. There are only 8 to go through.

And while we're talking about Google, does anyone know a way to force Google (or any search engine) to search for an official home page? Is that the kind of thing that's just going to depend on the individual site's keywords?

AFAIK, Google doesn't rely much on keywords. It's more about how many other pages link to the site. You could try putting in the name of the company into the search box and adding ".com" after it. That often works.

Or you could tack on the word "official." That works sometimes. Er, assuming you didn't try that already.

You could try putting in the name of the company into the search box and adding ".com" after it. That often works.

Adding .com as a separate search term? Huh. Will give that a try. (This is largely my husband's bugaboo.)

Adding .com as a separate search term?

No, I meant just appending it to the company name. It won't work all the time, but often.

Yeah, but at that point, you could just type it in the address box.

Katie, Consuela was looking to sell a slightly-used pair of those very earphones a month or two ago. You might check to see if she still has them and would be willing to part with them for a very reasonable price.