Hi Dooley, They're two nice looking little plants toy have there. Exactly what size are they and are they also unstable like the mini meyendorffii. kathi_mdgd, Sorry, I stuffed up once again. I was rearranging my albums and must have broken the link which caused the pic's to be removed. I try and load them again. Does anyone know if it's possible to remove all the blank boxes where the pic's once were? SECTION 1 OPEN Class (a) Aechmea Class (b) Billbergia Class (c) Neoregelia Class (d) Miniature Neoregelia (Only 1 entry) Class (e) Tillandsia Class (f) Vriesea/Guzmania Class (g) Other bromeliad not listed Class (h) Colony Aechmea/Vriesea (Only 2 entries) Class (i) Colony - Neoregelia SECTION 2 - NOVICE Class (j) Aechmea Class (k) Neoregelia Class (l) Class (n) Other bromeliad not listed SECTION 3 CREATIVE Class (o) Mounted Tillandsia Class (q) Basket/Decorative Container (Only 2 entries) Class (r) Bromeliad Garden (Only 2 entries) Class (s) Artistic Arrangement Main Display (Non Competitive) CHAMPION BROMELIAD - OPEN SECTION CHAMPION BROMELIAD - NOVICE BEST SPECIES DULCIE DOONAN MEMORIAL AWARD All the best, Nev.

Vee, I recall reading several of the novels on that Whitbread List that I think you read as well, because we had some discussions about them here at RP. Small Island -- Andrea Levy; Music & Silence -- Rose Tremain; and maybe The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time -- Mark Haddon I have also read several of the biographies, including Bad Blood by Lorna Sage, that I remember you commenting about. I notice that Vernon God Little by D B C Pierre (Peter Finlay) won both the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award in 2003. I thought it was tripe, the sort of satire/black comedy that appeals to those who think John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces is a masterpiece. I think Vernon might be the record holder for most curse words in a major prize winner and such descriptions as this: "Deputy Gurie tears a strip of meat from a bone; it flaps through her lips like a sh*t taken backwards." and lots more of the same caliber. [thanks to one of the reviewers at Goodreads for the quote -- he thinks it's "a gem"!] I haven't retained much of How to be both, but I'm sorry that I was unaware of your response to reading it until several months after you posted. You could have helped me greatly with the art part. I think I mostly read it wrong, so thanks to Martin and Sheri for setting me straight on some of my interpretations. Carolyn, the Poe story could have been "The Fall of the House of Usher" since incest is suggested there, too. But I think the incest in it is probably more obvious than in "The Tell-Tale Heart." I read the latter without grasping it at all, because at the time I was naïve and didn't even know that kind of incest existed. I don't remember it being mentioned, either, in any of my "Poe classes." Your mother was a better educator than the ones I had. Edit to add: I was on the right track about "jolly good reads." Thank you Annpan and Vee for verifying that. I share with you, Vee, a contentedness with reading DduM, Hill, and Franklin. :-)

A little OT... but still on "musical poetry", I guess. Shel Silverstein... famous for writing a lot of poems gear toward younger kids... those "Sidewalk" books. WELL, you're never too old to learn. As a teacher aid, helping a special needs student in his English class, discover that the lyrics to Johnny Cash' "A Boy Named Sue" and Dr. Hook's "Cover of the Rolling Stone" are BOTH from him!?!

Hello Martin. I stumbled across this post and, as I follow the Booker Prize too and it appears no one else here does, I thought I'd give you my opinion of the books. First off I absolutely agree with you that Girl, Woman, Other was superb. It is one of the few books I've ever read that I thought "I could read that again." when I finished it. This year's short list (in the same order you've mentioned them): The Promise - Beautifully written. The story was compelling although actually pretty simple. The writing! No One is Talking About This - I found the first half humorous (although you are correct, too of the moment). Intensely disliked the second half. The Fortune Men - I rely on libraries and neither system I belong to has a copy so I have not been able to read this book. I will shame a library into ordering it if it wins (I had to do that with Girl. Woman, Other). Great Circle - I thought it 200+ pages longer than it needed to be. I found the modern part of the book uninteresting. Overall it focused too much on the characters' love lifes and veered too far towards chick lit. Bewilderment - Too obvious? The not so subtle references to current events made it seem too preachy (although I agree with the sentiments). Maybe Powers should figure out how to write nonfiction. Just okay. A Passage North - Definitely not a book for the casual reader: contemplating the correlation between ancient Hindu and Buddhist poems, the story of Siddhartha, and the story in this novel that takes place in present day Sri Lanka. Perhaps we should not encourage Philosophy PhDs to write novels (jk). My pick is The Promise (This is also Galgut's third time being nominated.). I think either Great Circle or Bewilderment will win though (I really hope that No One... does not) so your tenner may be a good bet. We'll find out in a few days. Happy reading!