COFFEE GRINDER UPDATE: I got lots of advice, including “drink instant, it’s silent” (the coffee equivalent of responding to PC questions with “get a Mac!” I guess) and a suggestion to just put an oven mitt over the grinder. Well, if my Braun weren’t busted, I might try that . . . .

The most positive recommendations went to this Kitchenaid model — a little pricey, but people say it’s quiet and will last forever. Did I say pricey? It’s cheaper than this one, which several people also recommended. InstaPundit readers aren’t chintzy on the kitchen gear, apparently. Yowza.

Much cheaper was this Capresso grinder, which several people liked — or this one, which is also more my price range. And reader John Kluge suggests that I just go for the Cuisinart grind and brew coffeemaker. Looks good, but I’ve done all the coffeemaker buying I plan to do for a while. For the history of that, go here and here. I still like the DeLonghi coffeemaker, by the way.

UPDATE: James Lileks emails:

I’d recommend the Cuisinart, because it has a nifty & convenient feature: the cup in which you grind the beans is detachable, so you can pulverize your beans at one location and transport the result to your machine.

Unfortunately, my unit has gone rogue. Bean molecules have foiled the safety feature. Like most units, you can’t turn on the grinder without pressing down a safety button; in this case it’s the part that covers the detachable cup. Recently the grinder decided to spin up the blades as soon as the cup was reseated, shooting up a brown cloud of finely-ground coffee. So now I have to unplug it after using it. Other than that, and the possibility of losing a finger, it’s one of those appliances about which I can confidently say: the finish doesn’t show fingerprints as bad as I thought.

Well, there’s a recommendation!