Have to admit there are some really good ones this year. They each have their own style. Maybe the twist will be that there will be two winners. I vote for Adam and the 16 yr old, red hair girl. I can't remember her name either. I'm am sure most of them will come away with recording contracts but it is early. Only thing I don't like this year is that I am getting tired of Paula and her antics. I think she and Simon act so childish.

Hi Dottie, I know that Ashley and Max are on Broadway doing a show. (they're also engaged!). I haven't heard that she won't be on DWTS. I really like her. It starts Sept 21. This is the largest cast ever, so it's going to be 3 nites the first week. (can anyone say overkill, as much as I love the show?). They'll be kicking 2 people off at once.

PAM, I first read And the Sea Will Tell right after I moved to Hawai'i the first time in the early 1990s. "The Sea Wind Murders" were still discussed heatedly in the Islands at that time and Bugliosi's book sparked new interest. Although nearly everyone agreed that Buck Walker was guilty of murdering the Grahams, the split was about half and half concerning Stephanie's involvement in anything but the stealing of the Sea Wind, for which she was convicted and served time. Over the years I've reread the book several times and researched other sources. I've thought about it and tried to work it out as to what I think is most logical. Of course when I got the chance to visit Palmyra I tried to apply what I learned about the physical layout of the place and whether it was possible for Stephanie to not have known what happened to the Grahams. I have to admit that my opinion of Stephanie's complicity has vacillated. On the one hand, assuming for the sake of argument that Stephanie was not involved: It was certainly possible that she heard nothing. The noisy birds and the constant rustling of the tree fronds would have masked just about anything short of a large explosion. The Iola was tied up to dolphins on the other side of a spit of land that projected from Cooper Island into the western lagoon from where the Grahams had anchored the Sea Wind. If Stephanie was aboard the Iola as she said she was, she would not have been able to see what was going on 'around the corner' with all the flora blocking the view. If Stephanie was as busy as she claimed that day on board the Iola getting ready to sail to Fanning Island, it's quite possible that she was simply unaware of what was going on outside her own boat. On the other hand, a lot of what Stephanie did indicates 'consciousness of guilt', in my opinion. Such as: As soon as she and Buck got on board the Sea Wind, the first thing they did was help themselves to the Grahams' food and alcohol (Stephanie said that a bottle of peach brandy was sitting on the table, seemingly for her since it was her favorite liquor). Stephanie appropriated Muff's wardrobe. She was photographed wearing one of Muff's blouses that Mac's sister Kit recognized. Stephanie lied about the scuttling of the Iola until she was confronted with a photograph that showed both the Iola and the Sea Wind outside the channel into the western lagoon of Palmyra Atoll. Stephanie was certainly aware of Buck Walker's temperament. He was selfish (he ate most of their own stores in spite of Stephanie begging him to go easy); he was lazy (he only grudgingly helped Stephanie with their 'roof garden' of vegetables, preferring to cultivate marijuana seedlings instead); he didn't give a damn if his vicious dogs terrorized other people; and above all else he resented the Grahams' presence and he coveted their boat, the Sea Wind. Then, as you mentioned, as soon as Buck and Stephanie sailed back to Hawai'i on the Sea Wind, they had its appearance altered somewhat by painting the trim lavender! They had no intentions of informing the authorities of why they were on the Grahams' boat without the Grahams. No, I don't think things add up. Stephanie does not seem to have been afraid of Buck. In many ways, she was the dominant personality, or at least she seems to have been the smarter of the two (she was the navigator on the way down to Palmyra; Buck could not have managed that without her). Was she a sociopath? I don't know. Buck certainly was. Stephanie had lousy taste in men. She seemed to like down-and-outs, thinking somehow that she could 'help' them. Wasn't one of her later boyfriends also a convicted felon? At any rate, when Stephanie threw her lot in with Buck Walker, she accepted his reality (being on the lam because he was afraid of going back to prison) as her own reality. It seems stupid of her, but women have done plenty of stupid things when they think they are in love. Would she have helped her lover murder people who had been kind to them and on whom (she acknowledged) they had become dependent? Of course she could have, but did she? I don't think there is conclusive proof that she did. Suspicion, yes, but there is that shadow of doubt in my mind. As for Vincent Bugliosi as a narcissist: He does come across as a trumpeter of his own successes. PAM, I appreciate you getting back to me. I hope you found the book at least interesting, although perhaps exasperating! ;-)

Really is your choice. I sometimes cut nearly spent stems to dry indoors. Most of the time I just leave them in place overwinter until I do a spring clean up. I kind of like the way they look in winter - flowers (although dry) when not much of anything else is flowering. If you prefer to do a clean up in fall and like things nice and tidy over winter or you have to apply winter protection, you can remove them. Just cut back the spent flower stem to the next set of buds below the flowerhead. This is just deadheading and won't affect next year's flowering.