*faints* 2....years....umm....it does look rather special though..I'm tempted....hehe To be more specific it's for my dad. Not a huge huge project but I want to stitch him something like a dreamcatcher with a saying on...or a saying with vaious things round the outside...not a major project as at the same time I have to do something for my daughter, son, mum, sister, etc...etc...etc.... the life of a stitcher is never done eh? LOL people always say to me ...oooh I could never do that... but they could it just takes the patience to spend ages doing it and sitting on your bottom hehe

Hi Dee, Angc, Arcy and other GWs, I continue to struggle with how and if to place both a TV and fireplace in the same room. I also really want a window seat on the wall adjacent to the fireplace, and decorative display around the fireplace. You can see the room by clicking on the link above entitled great room floor plan. Thanks for the recent comments; your ideas are all helpful. Arcy, mentioned I should just mount the TV on the wall. Hmmmm, the best wall might just be the stair case wall. Then I could have my fireplace centred with builts-in for decorative display and also my window seat. Not having to squeeze the TV into the remaining space between built-ins and window seat could have visual advantages. The TV would have a 6 foot south window facing it in this location, so we would definitely have to do a low glare TV which I have learned are available. Not to sure what to do with the corner between the built-ins and the window seat -- any ideas here? Would this work at all? I would love your follow-up comments to this idea, please and thanks. Carol

I really related to Holly Hunter's stressed out basket case character in the movie Broadcast News (with William Hurt and Albert Brooks). I have no idea who other think I remind them of. (besides someone who likes to dangle prepositions :-) Jodi-

Here are a few more characters I think apply to the main question: Billy Kwan in The Year of Living Dangerously by Christopher J. Koch and in the subsequent film starring Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, and Linda Hunt. I read the book first and in it there is no doubt that Billy is male. Actually, there's none in the film, either, except the role of Billy is played by a woman. When I first saw the film, I didn't know that the actor is female, so I wasn't wowed by the fact that she played Billy so convincingly. Some watchers, however, can't seem to get past that fact. At any rate, without Billy Kwan, a heterosexual male dwarf, the story wouldn't be much beyond the typical love affair during difficult times. (That descriptive of a particular type of a small-sized person is not PC, I know, but good grief, things do have to be taken in context of the times depicted.) Flora in The Piano by Jane Campion and Kate Pullinger and in the film starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin. The book actually came after the film, in one of the rare instances when a novelization of a screenplay is quite well written, probably because Jane Campion, the screenwriter and director, had her hand in the novel as well. As memorable as Flora is in the film as the daughter of the main character, Ada, I was pleasantly surprised that her actions were translated to the book in depth. Sally Bowles in Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories and in a couple of films: "I Am a Camera" (Julie Harris in the role of Sally) and in "Cabaret" (with Liza Minnelli as Sally) Sally Bowles was English in Isherwood's stories and in "I Am a Camera" (although Julie Harris, the actress, was from the U.S.), but she's American in "Cabaret." I read somewhere that Minnelli was so perfect for the part, but she couldn't sustain an English accent so it was logical to change Sally's nationality. I agree in this instance. What about Harry Lime in The Third Man, a novelization by Graham Greene of his own screenplay for the film of the same title starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, and Alida Valli? Apparently, Greene wanted the character of Holly Martins to be English instead of American. But he always wanted the villain to be American. Greene did not have a very high opinion of Americans. Instead, Martins as played by Joseph Cotten is a Yank. But which is the main character, Harry Lime or Holly Martins, in spite of the billing order of the starring actors? The English characters, all of whom could be said to be secondary, are some of the best ever, I think: Major Calloway (Trevor Howard), Sergeant Paine (Bernard Lee), and Crabbin (Wilfrid Hyde-White). What do you all think of those characters? Good choices or not? I'm trying to think of very well known books and films that many people have probably read or seen, although it is likely more have seen the films.