First things first: skulls,crossbones, etc. really only denote a certain era in symbology. Slate markers can be dated by a combination of the symbolism used in the tympanum and the distance from Boston (and/or Newport, RI, home of the Stevens shop and other major carvers). In other words, the current fashion of symbols -- soul effigies to skulls, to winged skulls, to cherubs, to portraits of the deceased, to willows and urns to a complete change from slate to marble and a different style of sculpture -- changed first in Boston (or Newport) and the style changed a few years later the further away from the fashion center you got. See James Deetz in _In Small Things Remembered_, The Dublin Seminars, or any of the other gravestone books I listed earlier. I don't think I've run into any marker between 1650 and 1860-ish where the symbolism had anything to do with the cause of death. Children, though, if they had other than the current type of symbolism, were more likely to have flowers. Now, on to other things. Squid or bats first? If you have more than 3 of something, it becomes a collection, right? And then you have to maintain the collection by adding to it. That's how the rubber squid started. The third one was a glow in the dark one. The absolute best one in the collection was picked up on the Mass Pike at a rest area for 69 cents. (Lots of squid in the Berkshires, you know ;-) ) Bats because we have a colony of little brown bats (that's the variety, not just a description of what they look like) in between the cathedral ceiling and the roof. I'm trying to persuade them that, though I like bats a lot, I really don't like them as house pets. With luck, after they leave for the winter we can get the main deck rebuilt and fill up the half dollar sized access hole just under the peak of the roof so that next season they'll use the bat house instead of being loud upstairs tenants (who don't eat enough mosquitoes, dammit!). Fewer of them get into the house now that the trim piece is up on the ceiling on either side of the bedroom door. (I live in a post-and-beam house with all the posts and beams exposed. The bats are color coordinated with the beams. Nice touch, huh. The two pieces of sheetrock meet at the peak of the bedroom ceiling, leaving about an inch gap, which is covered by a 2x6 trim piece. July is "National Bat Week" of sorts. The adolescent bats are leaving the nursery for the first time on wings that are growing over an 1/8 of an inch a day. They sometimes get confused and end up in the house. This year I had a very young bat fall through the labyrinth of cracks onto the bed. I doubt if it could fly, but I put it out on the quarterdeck without a lot of hope that mamma would find it, but she did. I'm trying to figure out how to put our bat adventures together into a children's book. More later, if anyone's interested. Linn