KC, Having written and published a specific work myself I understand the time, effort and expense involved in not only travel for research and field work, but writing, editing, etc and publication costs IF all are paid for by the author(s) themselves (more about that later). Quality color photographs are very expensive in books - the higher the quality the more expensive. Even so the prices asked for many books is ridiculous, and is all about the profit that can be made on them. I covered ALL of the expenses and did all the work for my project myself, and gave all the copies away at no cost (all 5 printings). My purpose was to record and share (which did add some limited notoriety as well), but it was not to make money on. While some of the books I refered to (and many others) are spectacular as photo albums, did require a massive effort on the part of authors if they did the field work themselves, and may contain enough technical information to help offset their cost, they are still overpriced IMO. That later part... most are written by authors with institutional backing where most if not all expenses are covered by their backer. Brings to mind when I was picked for a special team to go do lepidopteran field work in China for a couple of months in the 90's, and couldn't go because I did not have those ties and could not justify the expenses out of pocket when I still had a son to put through college starting in a couple of years. Unfortunately some of the early works and discoveries have been lost in later references, but they still hold water and so still have value. Dozens of my research papers, books and other references are as old as the hills, but I'd rather refer to them than a lot of the stuff being published today that is often just copied work that was only done for the notoriety, the almighty buck or to record it (with notoriety as a by product). Teaching from a reference by a staff member is nothing new, still goes on today. A nemisis of what is supposedly called higher education. It's not right, but it still prevails. Larry

From White Oak Nursery, I ordered: Abiqua Moonbeam Alex Summers Jewel of the Nile June Touch of Class Guacamole Captain Kirk Thunderbolt and from Hilltop Farms, I ordered: American Icon Blue Mouse Ears Dark Shadows Fujibotan Journeys End plantaginea Aphrodite Sun Power I had spring fever so bad, I got a little carried away ordering online! Off-topic, but I hadn't seen hide nor hair, or even the tip of an eye of my Striptease, even though all my other hostas are up. Good news - saw some Striptease eyes peeking out today! Deanna

Reasonably sized lawns are not necessarily a bad thing. But when you consider that many people have multiple acres of lawn, mow them with gas-guzzling riding lawn mowers, throw away the grass clippings, over-fertilize, douse with pesticides and herbicides, and water daily rinsing the fertilizers and *cides into the water supply, yes, then lawns become a waste of space that severely damage the environment. If instead you had a smaller lawn, kept goats to keep it in check, used a scythe to mow (instead of going to the gym after you get off the riding mower), plant clovers for nitrogen fixing, let the diversity of grasses and plants mitigate insect damage, mow the grass higher and less often in the summer to retain moisture, and use any excess clippings to make compost or mulch for the vegetable garden, then lawns can be a good thing. Cheers!

I finished it. Luckily, someone gave me the book and I could stop listening to Reese Witherspoon on audio--her narration was distracting. Vee, the article you linked to pretty much sums up how I felt: this is a coming of age story about a young woman who finds out her revered father (and boyfriend) have feet of clay. I have no trouble believing, as it has been reported, that Watchman is an unedited draft. Way too much internal thought process, not much going on story-wise. The best writing revolved around Jean Louise's remembering her childhood with Jem and Dill, out of which she crafted TKaM. While everyone's beloved Atticus isn't as "fleshed out" in this version, he is more complicated. Atticus is a lawyer and in TKaM, he upheld the law as was his duty. His personal beliefs, repugnant and shocking to modern readers, weren't as unusual then. Jean Louise represents change and must be her own watchman, as we are all charged to be. Money grab? I vote yes. Not because now the legacy of Atticus is sullied, but because much of the writing is poor, the manuscript went unpublished for 55 years, and now Lee is arguably impaired. And to publish it as a stand-alone novel, unedited? Money grab.