I had a couple of pink flamingos in my yard for awhile. I named them 'Tongue' and 'Cheek'. They finally died. I think of,embarrassment.

I do have to say that every time I see a news story about the latest known case of commercial produce being contaminated with E. coli, salmonella or whatever, I think to myself how lucky we are that we can grow a lot of our own produce and not have to worry about buying contaminated food. For me, the big wake-up moment that I should raise food crops as organically as possible was when I read how many times some kinds of conventionally-grown produce are sprayed. That was probably about 20 years ago. I never used many chemical pesticides, miticides or herbicides prior to that, but since reading that information I use almost none. You couldn't pay me to use a broad-spectrum pesticide of any kind, organic or synethetic in nature, on food we are going to eat. I count on all the beneficial insects taking care of the pest insects, and if I spray a broad-spectrum pesticide, it will kill some, if not all, of the beneficials. When you grow your own--whether it is food, herbs, or even flowers that you are going to cut and bring inside to use in flower arrangements--you get to control how much your plants are sprayed with anything, if they are sprayed at all. Lisa, You're my kind of person. I can find 1,001 reasons, all related to gardening, to ignore housework and to, instead, spend hours in the garden. Housework is not my favorite thing to do. I do it, but I don't particularly enjoy doing it and I procrastinate and put it off as long as I can. Debra, My dad and his family lived in Montague County, TX, which is sort of catty-corner to the western end of Love County, OK. He was born in 1919 and was, I think, 3rd youngest in a very large family of at least 10 or 11 children, some of whom died decades before I was born. I look at how hot and dry the western end of Love County gets, and I marvel that my dad and his family even were able to raise enough food in similar soil and a similar climate to survive. My dad and all my aunts and uncles from his side of the family are gone now, but I feel remarkably close to them when I am gardening or canning. My love of gardening and canning came from them, so when I am doing it, I feel like they are still with me. I garden for the birds and butterflies as well, mixing in plants for them in all my fenced garden plots (fenced to exclude deer and bunnies) and in other places too. It is funny how one person can get so many other interested in gardening. I think that lots of people think that it is hard and that they cannot do it, so they don't even try. When you encourage them and help them understand how to do it, they become gardeners themselves, and then they pass on their love of gardening to someone else. The veggie gardeners I know here mostly all garden for the butterflies, bees and other beneficial insects too, and largely avoid the use of all pesticides. I feel like we are making lots of progress in that area. Kim, I agree. This likely is the first time in my life I've been trendy. And, when this trend has largely passed, I'll still be gardening and won't care that I'm no longer trendy. : ) Dawn

Hi Dreamgarden, 15 different approaches? Yeah, thats fair. Its 15 DIFFERENT JURISDICTIONS!!! What do you expect? No matter how thinly you slice the coin, there are always two sides. I wonder what any of the posters (who are smugly snarking about this particular woman's misfortune) would do if they lost their job (or husband) and were unable to pay their bills? A) I've been there... flat-ass broke, unemployed, and DEEPLY in debt. I am not at all unsympathetic to the hell of a life that is. B) I never DODGED nor AVOIDED my creditors (let alone the LAW!) C) I busted ass doing many different menial things to try to make a buck... all the while continually looking for ways to raise my life standard to permanently earn more. I made far less than minimum wage FOR A LONGGG TIME. D) I methodically communicated with my creditors (which DID NOT make them any friendlier... but kept them (mostly) from pursuing litigation. And when there were those who did, I spent my time in the courtroom dealing with the hired-to-be-butthead attorneys, and explaining to the judge my methodical communications approach (which *ALWAYS* gained me leniency.) I was ignorant of money dynamics & personal credit back-in-the-day (and in compensation I drove myself eventually to the opposite extreme.) Still, I respected my community, the people who trusted in me with their money (the creditors,) and the legal system. The subject of the post you brought was a dodging deadbeat... a common thief. There's a huge difference. Cheers, Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner

I do think that libraries should cater to a wide variety of tastes. The problem comes with one person deciding what the other people should read.Exactly -- one person, or the committees (boards) that are interested only in the bottom line. The problem is many public libraries in the US are catering to very narrow taste, and I think that's what most of us are really complaining about. Now, whether this is because the preponderance of the clientele only want certain types of books, or the space and budget restraints are inhibiting the purchase of a broad collection...I'm not sure, but I suspect it's both. It's very disheartening to me, though, to see choice shrinking rather than expanding in public libraries. I have nothing against sci-fi/fantasy being well represented for readers who love it. I do object to mediocre and poorly written sci-fi/fantasy crowding out other genres, though. (I certainly can't tell, though, what is good and what is bad in the genre because I don't read enough of it, but I've been told very frequently by several family members who love the genre that about 70% of it is crap. I'll take their word for it because among them they have almost 150 years of reading experience, a lot of it in sf/fantasy, and even they see their beloved genre is over-represented -- and debased because of it.) There comes a point when a significant portion of the clientele is not being served well because the most popular genres are hogging everything, and those people will get discouraged and turn away; perhaps some potential readers will be lost because the library doesn't have much of anything they need or have an interest in. The libraries have already lost me, but I don't count because I have other resources -- it's those who don't have alternatives I feel the saddest for.