Bunnahabhain, That's Stilly river, please! The name is not an oxymoron, it is shortened from Stillaguamish, as in the river in Western Washington state.

I have seen several sets of letters meant to dance around the BC that is so embedded in christianity, but is clearly still the easiest one to remember. These CE and BCE seem to turn up most often. I've always objected to the birth of christ as the marker for setting our calendar, but to sidestep his name and use the same calendar is a bit disengenuous. I find the current politically correct substitutions aren't used consistently enough to do more than confuse people, but I'm not going to suggest changing our calendar to reflect something else. Who would get to choose what that something might be? We need to just live with it.

Before Present as a term sounds completely arbitrary. At least archeologists in their digs and record-keeping have a reason for choosing 1945 as a before/after date to reflect the beginning of today's era of atomic bombs. The fallout is noticable in the modern layer of soil.

Glow in the dark tomatoes, anyone?

My garlic and onions are perking along in the back yard, but because of the unusual mix of really warm weather between cold fronts, my quince has bloomed and I have confused daffodils (narcissus) popping up in flower beds. One of my oldest favorite flower pots by the side door finally broke under the effects of frost-heaving in this last cold snap.

SRS