I'm sure some lucky gardener will be close enough to be lucky enough to get these cuttings. Tell me Jroot - Datura is different than brugs, right? are they somehow related? (like delphiniums being perennials verses larkspur being the annual?) Is one a perennial and one an annual? Datura I know has a bad rap for the pods being used as a drug but are brugs as posionous? Just haven't got the 'brugs bug' in my system yet, so it is probably just as well that I am a grave distance from your cuttings or else I'll be hooked on another 'must have' plant. Cheers! (PS - I love the photo of the pink edged brug)

It does sound good. I've seen pictures of Sandra's sister and read references to her bakery, but didn't know she'd written a book. I just looked this one up on Amazon and discovered she's written several. What a baker she must be! I just finished The Way Life Should Be,, a novel that includes a lot of Italian cooking--with recipes at the end. It made me want to go to Maine. But then, everything makes me want to go to Maine. :-) From Booklist: "Angela Russo, a 33-year-old event planner in New York City, has a job she finds monotonous, a lackluster love life, and a best friend who suggests trying an online dating service. Angela signs up and, on a whim, extends the site's geography search to include Maine, picturing herself in a cozy, rustic cottage by the shore. Before the inveterate Italian cook can say cacciatore, she's met her Maine man--the handsome sailing instructor Richard Saunders. He sends her a flurry of haikus and flirtatious e-mails, and after a professional disaster befalls her, Angela finds herself driving up the coast to explore a new life with him. When she arrives in Maine, however, it is not the picture-perfect storybook scene she anticipated. But with her love of cooking and dreams of a cottage by the sea as guiding lights, Angela learns to live life and achieve success on her own terms."

A Banned Book Week can bring about discussion of censorship, pros and cons -- look what we're doing. :-) And for that reason, I can hardly object. Yes, it's the marketing of it that bothers me; but I agree that the plethora of "Weeks" we have here in the U.S. dilutes whatever message is intended. Most people either won't care or they will pick up and repeat superficial arguments, such as: "Little Red Riding Hood was banned! Isn't that stupid?!" I didn't mean to imply that the publishing industry sponsors Banned Books Week, instead of the American Library Association, so thanks for clarifying that, Cindy, for our non-American RPers. However, the publishing industry has taken it up and run with it. My local Barnes & Noble makes a big deal out of it, as do several other booksellers I've seen; their motives I suspect are not entirely altruistic. And all the bookselling promotions I've seen, lazily or intentionally, omit the "Challenged" part, which is nigh unto misrepresentation if you ask me. In my opinion, we should be far more concerned about media concentration and manipulation of the masses than what parents want to see on school shelves.I couldn't agree more, venusia. I have some problems with the American Library Association's statements at their site. For example, they cite John Stuart Mill's On Liberty with this: "If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error."The ALA, of course, is using J.S. Mill to bolster their argument against what they perceive as censorship; but they are ignoring the fact that beleaguering the act of challenging is also an attempt at censorship. In fact, their open statement is:Banned Books Week emphasizes the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one's opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.Yet, from the tone of their Q&As, it sounds as if they are deeming challengers as always wrongheaded.But because the history of the world is filled with banned books being the start...

Thanks to all for your comments. Pam and Socks - DH is now reading this book and didn't really like it at first. He said he's beginning to enjoy it now that he's partway through, no doubt getting to the more dramatic segments. Yes, Socks, it's so sad that Zamperini didn't live to be honored in the parade. Donna - the aspects of the book that you mention are what kept me so transfixed as well.