Taz, I couldn't view the front page before disabling cookies but with or without them enabled, but once I log in, I end up in the same place. But onto other matters. Call me a sap, someone who still believes in getting paid for honest work. You are among the first to post the spam smiley when someone tries to promote their own site (and I agree - wrong) but you don't have a problem with people promoting theft? It's immaterial and irrelevant where Keith got his info or if the same info is available in other places. The fact is his book is copyrighted, which means the info in it can not be disseminated without his permission. This is not rocket science, it's been a law for a couple centuries. If you don't want to take time to do such a thing, that's fine - a lot of people wouldn't. And if I burned a bridge because I believe in upholding what is right (Mischka removed the links until he could find out if honeycomb has the right to host the file - and I told him I would be happy if he found out they can), then it is a bridge I just as soon would avoid. YMMV, Mike

Ya know, eileenlaunonen (Eileen) has been drifting towards the vicinity of Georges Bank fishing grounds for several days now. The fishing's great & I know the Feast of the Seven Fishes is coming soon...but it's gonna be a loonnnggg swim back to Long Island hauling her catch! :) Linda, I'm a thinkin' Eileen is busy & hasn't noticed how far out she's drifted & is in need of the life ring you tossed me. FYI for where to toss the ring...Georges Bank is east of Cape Cod. :) /tricia

I'm late to join the party here, but I'm glad y'all had a great visit. I see the resemblance, but I wouldn't have thought of it if Dedtired hadn't brought it up. Neither picture of Fergie is good. The first one looks like she hadn't slept in days, and the second one is too photo shopped or airbrushed to look like her. The pic of Robin is great, though. I don't know if I'll ever make it to the Chicago or midwest area, but it looks like a great city to visit, and Annie was a wonderful tour guide. Sally

I never got sick either, but a bunch of family members got sick from eating my Aunt Midge's pickled mushrooms at a family party once. It kind of takes the fun out of an evening, watching Aunt Esther barf in the bushes..... It does happen, although it doesn't happen often, in my experience. Some cases of botulism do come from home canned foods and some people do die, although not many. The risk is relatively miniscule. Many cases come from the same area, like a whole bunch of people in Alaska that ate badly canned salmon. Others come from commerical items like that Bolthouse Farms carrot juice and the baked potatoes at the restaurant that were wrapped in foil and left sitting on the counter for hours. The "rules" in Canada are different than the "rules" in the United States because we are loathe to take any risk at all, IMO. The extension services do not want the liability of someone coming back and saying "you said it was all right and now I'm sick". I don't think it's necessarily the government's job to protect us from our own cooking, but many people do. The guidelines are extremely conservative, IMO, but very safe. I do not know Canada's testing specificiations, or any other country's, for that matter, so do they know something we don't know or are they more independent or bigger risk takers? Beats me. At any rate, there's a risk, albeit extremely small. Maybe even smaller than that, LOL. I choose to take it, and it's my choice. I'd eat LindaC's jelly too. Oh, that's right, I already have! It's the "don't" part that got my back hairs raised, I'd rather see a "did you know that it's not tested, I just thought I'd let you know" approach. And agmss, I agree, the Search function here is abysmal, next to useless. Ugh. I don't even try to use it anymore, I just Google "gardenweb" and whatever I'm looking for. Annie