Hi Socks! Hey, I'm still making a recipe of yours, except that I cannot for the life of me remember which one it is right now LOL. I'm sure it will come back to me. (I did think the film was a bit too long and dragged a bit, but overall, we both loved it.) I'd like to say that I'm happy that you KT folks discuss movies! I can't seem to find anyplace else to get some recommendations and talk about them and the film forum here on GW is pretty dead. We try to see all or most, of the Oscar nominated films each year and it makes the Academy Awards kind of fun for us to watch.

I thought Angelina looked thinner than normal. I couldn't believe how thin and unheallthy her arms were. Her unnatural pose with the exposed leg was a little odd during her presentation. Not sure how funny she thought it was when the winners she announced mimicked her pose. Meryl Streep looked like an oscar in her gold dress which turned out to be very appropriate. I noticed there was a lot less jewelry worn. All in all I thought everyone looked great. I give Billy Crystal an A++++ as Oscar host, he nailed it yet again!

Sounds about right, Frieda. Lumpers and separators can be found in many other areas of human thought as well. Just look at biological classification! It's a constant pull and tug there. I guess one reason to separate in fiction would be liking one sort and not another, and wanting to clarify why that is so. Personally I like SF and much fantasy, but usually not either magical realism or horror though exceptions do occur. I tend to dislike horror because it scares me for real, not for fun. I do not enjoy being scared. I hate roller coasters for much the same reason. I dislike magical realism because it seems to me that it breaks the contract of a world with consistent internal rules that exists between the reader and the writer. I find it to be a cheat if you establish a realistic word and suddenly it isn't a realistic world anymore, often with no justification. But as I wrote above, exceptions do happen. For example, I simply loved Peace Like a River by Lief Enger, a clear example of magical realism. So go figure. As for good entry level books into SF&F I do find them from time to time. Years ago I used to recommend Frank Herbert's Dune (and not any of its sequels which all were quite dreadful). I still love it, but it may feel dated now - it's 50 years old and the part of the world it was based on (the Middle East) has changed a great deal in that time. A couple of decades ago I would recommend Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card or Connie Willis's Doomsday Book. Be aware that a lot of people are seriously put off by Card's personal beliefs, though those are not expressed in this particular book. I can't think of a reason not to like Doomsday Book. I still love it. It is one of my all time favorite novels. As for the recent Hugos, there are definitely some good writers there. Not sure they would all be easy entry into an unfamiliar genre. I'm thinking in particular about N.K. Jemisin. She is a highly skilled writer but her landscapes can feel obscure. I enjoy her work but would not start there. If you find you do enjoy science fiction you will want to read her books eventually. Sometimes humor can be the gateway. For me it has to be clever humor, and wry is even better, never slapstick which I despise. That is probably why I like the Murderbot series by Martha Wells. There is one on the latest Hugo list, but don't start with that one. You really do need to read them in order since they tell a continuous, if episodic, story. The first one is called All Systems Red. It is a very short book, really a novella, though the books get longer after a while. The main character is a security robot (a "murderbot") whose controlling governor stops working, but she is clever enough that she pretends she still has to obey. She regards humanity with a jaundiced eye, but finds herself slowly developing something like affection for certain humans, much to her dismay. I simply adore them. Another writer I am enjoying these days is T. Kingfisher. She is a fantasy writer while the Murderbot series is straight up science fiction, but the same intelligent humor is present. Her heroines tend to be women of a certain age, not lovely young things trembling with dew, and I like that, too. She first presented the world she developed with a duology, the Clockwork Boys and The Wonder Engine. You could read them together as a single story or just skip to the next books Swordheart, Paladin's Grace, and Paladin's Strength. I like them all. She has also written couple of horror novels which I found creepy rather than outright scary (and that's okay by me). She also writes children's and young adult books, but the ones I listed are intended for adults. If you decide to try them, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Finally, some of my Nomocharis aperta seed, from Jelitto, is germinating! Basically everything from Jelitto that didn't need stratification is germinating, which is a great feeling. Although I wish they'd been able to fulfill the order a little faster. It took a month for the seeds to be picked and trans-shipped to KY, so keep that it mind if you take non-direct import option that doesn't require one to obtain a USDA permit. It will probably peter out around here because the summer are too hot, which is also the fate of the high elevation Himalayan Lilium like L. nepalense...but with the price places are charging for plants, the grow it from seed option is very attractive! https://farreachesfarm.com/products/nomocharis-aperta Besides, as I've observed before, growing from seed increases the miniscule chance that some genetic variation will allow for one or two seedlings to survive here after all.