Ahhh, a hero at last ;-) Thank you Janie. I freely admit being a housewife who stumbled onto a miracle ;-) If I kept that information to myself it would have been a sin. I have, since then, bought a few books on syntax and grammer, though I am still bewildered by commas, semi colons, and the elusive--double dash--used to highlight specific points. Most of the books I've bought to assist me with WS are about human psychology (motivations), leadership, dealing with idiots (troll control) differentiated learning and html. Grammer, because of a far greater need for the others, still remains overshadowed and at the bottom of the list for writing skills. I'll never earn a GWA award, I probably won't ever get one of Eddie's adorable Green Thingies. And I also won't ever make much of a nickel off of WS because I WANT it kept Fair Use. WS is my intellectual property, I locked it up very early on with CRs, and I sought an AgNIC partnership to further protect that. Because of the partnership it MUST all remain as/and continually be created for Fair Use. Anyone, at any time, may copy and duplicate all WS information or photos for educational.nfp.critic use. I don't have to be contacted and I don't even have to be mentioned. From my personal/emotional point of view, Fair Use also eliminates a lot of justification angst that anyone of us would feel if we were to see our words and methods in another body of work, without, at least, a mention of our name(s) as source. This used to be very frustrating to me. VERY frustrating. After I accepted Fair Use as a concept of my heart, rather than a too-bad/too-sad reality, I was able to focus the direction towards educational provision ;-) and write more about the means than the visual results. I am currently writing (not sure you would/should call it that) interactive educational exercises, otherwise known as quizzes and puzzles, for the website. They teach with term/concept repetition as the learning tool. They work by user input. This, for me, is where accuracy is most important. As an example, Marrubium vulgare is horehound and not hoarhound--though both seem to be used interchangably. I verified with the NAL Thesaurus, which now has a server that cranks out search results as fast as google. (HOORAY!) Janie, I'm glad you're WSing, I'm glad for everyone who does. WS is like pulling a rabbit out of hat, except that it's not one rabbit. And we all KNOW what rabbits do. They make easy to strew about, mild to use, fertilizer raisinettes for our gardens ;-) Vive la Bunny.

I tried a few Oprah picks, but they all seemed stuck on one theme: dysfunction -- usually of the family sort or women doing stupid things, then transcending their idiocy. Very noble in intention, I'm sure, but I always feel I've been thumped on the head repeatedly with a tablespoon when I read O's choices. My list would start with Mark Twain. He can get me out of a funk quicker than just about any American writer. I would like to include Harper Lee and Margaret Mitchell, but I'm with Carolyn that only one book each makes them hard to estimate. I really like Wallace Stegner's histories (e.g., about the American West, Mormons) and biographies (John Wesley Powell). I'm not fond of his fiction for a reason I find hard to define...maybe it's just because it's fiction after I have been so entranced by his skill with nonfiction. Styron has written some of the loveliest, most vivid descriptions I think I've ever read. But gosh! his fiction, to me, is depressing. I recognized that even before I knew that he was suffering depression himself. As for Faulkner, I still say that The Reivers is my favorite -- I find it hilarious. It's entirely accessible too. I know he's admired for his labyrinthine sentences and stream of consciousness, so the 'normalness' of The Reivers evidently makes it lesser somehow in some sniffy quarters. Let 'em sniff; I'll take pure entertainment when I can get it. I liked Steinbeck when I was younger, but trying to reread his fiction is like listening to stale sermons. I didn't realize how preachy some of his stuff is. I'll stick up for Hemingway any day, though I know that many women loathe his writing (and him, too, apparently). Of the two rivals, F. Scott Fitzgerald was certainly the more elegant writer, but Hemingway appeals in an entirely different way to me. I think it's really silly to compare them, but it seems inevitable for some reason. Poets: Edgar Allan Poe (and short stories) Elizabeth Bishop (I like her prose, too.) Emily Dickinson Sylvia Plath Anne Sexton (Why are so many fine poets depressives?) Mary Oliver (she's growing on me!) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (call him corny, I don't care, as I think his corn will outlast most of the synthetics of the 20th/21st centuries)

Great article with a massive number of interesting recipes. I concur with the statement about no garlic bread in Italy. We spent the month of September touring around Italy and never saw it on any menu.

Hi Raven, I've done that a couple of times, and it made no difference. And all of a sudden today, it decided to work as it should. This happened a couple of months ago....I couldn't post for days, and then one day I could.