Question: “I suspect that you have answered this question before, but I still can't find the answer. Why is my alarm clock set to go off nine minutes after I hit the snooze button?”

        “Why not 10?” chimes a second reader.

        Answer: “As far as I know, there is not a conspiracy ... in the industry to short consumers one minute of sleep,” says James Harper, spokesman for Thomson Consumer Electronics, Indianapolis.

        “The majority of clock radios on the market use the same (computer) chip, which has a preprogrammed snooze alarm time of nine minutes,” he said.

        Apparently, the wizards who developed the chip were able to save memory and produce chips more efficiently by using one digit instead of two.

        Happily, Thomson has developed its own chip, which provides a programmable snooze that gives you as many as 30 minutes of extra sack time. It's available on some General Electric and RCA models, sold at WalMart, Best Buy, Target and Radio Shack.

        Here's to extended dreams.

        If you have a stupid question, send it to Ask a Stupid Question, Cincinnati Enquirer, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati OH 45202; fax: 768-8330; e-mail mpulfer@enquirer.com.

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