Truly, there are small miracles in everyday existence. One of them is that this 3-CD set costs only $14.99 (at amazon). Not only do you get Gould's complete 1955 performance of the Goldberg Variations - which instantly won him world fame - on Disc 1, remastered by the very best sound engineer in the Sony Classics stable, but you also get his complete 1982 recording of the very same pieces - vastly different - on Disc 2. The second recording was originally released only days before he died.

But wait: there's more! If you order now, we'll include, for absolutely no charge, the Popeil Pocket Fisherman... oh, wait a minute, wrong tape, hold on a sec.... Ahem. Take 2 (Bill Murray, call your office, your groundhog is ready):

But wait: there's more! The third CD in this holy trinity is Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic Tim Page's legendary final radio interview with Gould. This witty, incisive 50-minute play-by-play comparison of the two recordings is heaven. I know nothing of classical music, can't read music or play an instrument, yet found the banter between Page and Gould an invitation to be with two masters at the very heights of their respective arts. In the same way one doesn't need to be dead to write an obituary, one can enjoy and learn from and appreciate giants at work.

But that's not all! You also get Gould's own program notes from the 1955 recording as published on the LP, and a whole bunch of great photos.

"The purpose of art is not the release of a momentary ejection of adrenaline but rather the gradual, lifelong construction of a state of wonder and serenity." - Glenn Gould

Psychiatrist Helen Mesaros, author of "Psychobiography of a Virtuoso," about Gould, "argues that some of his eccentricities - like the fear of germs that led him to wear a coat, scarf, and gloves even in the summer - could be pinned on his overprotective mother or were rituals meant to diminish performance anxiety." Gimme a break, already: is this woman so buried amongst the tribal hangings and rugs in Freud's office that she's never heard of Asperger Syndrome? Yoo hoo, Dr. Mesaros, Hans Asperger described Gould in 1944. Perhaps that was in German, not one of her languages, but the literature on this fascinating sydrome since the 1950s, and certainly in the last five years, has exploded.

Bill Gates probably has Asperger; so, most likely, did Howard Hughes. Oh, about those Kleenex box slippers....

Gould's website is wonderful.