Hi, Well, galbra is really tough to come by here in the U.S. I have a lovely variant and my pics of it are on the IAS site....no clue where you can get this one. A. manta is a really tough plant to grow...not a beginner by any stretch. odoratus is easily available and easy to grow. albispathus seems easy so far, but not freely available. What you might want to focus on is some of the dwarf species that can go on a windowsill...the flowers smell bad, but they are so tiny it is really just not an issue....I'm thinking of ones like obscurus (get the highly mottled leaf form not the ugly plain green leaf form), verticillatus...not sure where you will track that one down.....sizemoreae (can be tough to find), pygmaeus (easily gound), saururus (a bit tough to find) and maybe a couple of others. Here is my obscurus: And here is my verticillatus: I would personally stay away from anything large. None of these are exactly beginner plants for the genus and can easily be rotted so be careful :o) Dan

Oh, yes, I re-read all the time. The ones I re-read the most are Jane Austen's novels, the "Outlander" series by Diana Gabaldon, "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy (one of my favorite books ever), and "Far From the Madding Crowd" by Thomas Hardy. I've re-read "To Kill a Mockingbird," too, but only 3-4 times.:)

veer - As far as PLAR goes, I think we see right from the start that the Land family is at ease with guns - the first thing we read about is the goose hunting trip the family has together. Hunting is for the family's enjoyment, yes, but also for their dinner. Hunting as a family activity is very common in the U.S., certainly in the states that serve as the backdrop for this story. We also see from the beginning that Jeremiah is not a violent man, nor does he condone violence in any way. Here in lies the conflict - a tension that is played out in the Land family, and in the broader human arena as well. Jeremiah's peaceful ways, his mild and passive behavior, his ability to turn the other cheek, bring his family as much sorrow and trouble as it does good.(eg losing his job at the school; I also think his passive behavior is the reason his wife left him.) Davey's choice to deal violently with a bad person brings nothing but pain to everybody - there is nothing good about his choice. This is made plain in the book, I think. (Although Reuben and Swede, as children, think that loyalty to Davey trumps everything, Jeremiah does not think loyalty equals aiding and abetting their brother's escape from jail) Davey's choice to use violence is also part of Jeremiah's anguish with the situation, I think. How can the beloved son of a peaceful man choose to solve problems with violence? Now we have a setting for an almost unresolvable conflict within Jeremiah, and anyone who has a family member who has committed a heinous crime; how do we continue to love them, and in the Land family's case, how do they do it without breaking the law themselves? I don't think Jeremiah is searching for Davey in order to get his son off the hook, I think he is trying to bring him to justice. I think Jeremiah believes Davey has a better chance at redeeming some portion of his life by facing the consequences of his actions in the courts, rather than running from the law for the rest of his life. Does he still love his son? Of course. Does he think Davey has done the right thing by committing murder - absolutely not.

It is a true story. The original title is Au nom de tous les miens. The sites that claim it is fiction are usually "historical revisionists" ie Holocaust deniers. Here is a link that might be useful: Martin Gray's official website