On 11 Oct 05 at 15:45, John Bryan wrote: > Winter is coming, indeed certain parts of the country have had > snow already. A gentle reminder, everyone: the PBS list is international in scope. Someone in a state of ignorance would wonder "which country is *the* country? Russia? Finland? Canada? China? Kazakhstan?" When you refer to a place, esp. to one near you, be very careful to specify it fully, so that someone in (say) Timbuktu can look the locale up in an atlas. If you write "near the airport", for example, with no other clue everyone else will be left scratching their heads in bewilderment. As an example: particularly on the Pacific slope of North America, the climate varies wildly from place to place, so those of us dwelling in this part of the ring of fire need to take special care. The phrase "northern California" covers a multitude of both sins and growing climates. "Coastal northern California" is better, but I'm pretty sure the climate changes dramatically as you proceed inland from the coast proper, so the name of the town you live nearest would probably be the best bet. The inclusion of a geographic reference in your usual .sig block is an easy way of dealing with this problem most of the time. However, if anybody quotes you and correctly trims off your .sig (which some email programs do automagically), local geographic references are left once again hanging in the air and you must then edit it to include the proper reference. PS: As for the Pacific climate varying wildly, around here* the saying is "if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes or walk five blocks away." *here: see .sig at end of message. or, to take my own advice, *here: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, maritime zone 8, cool Mediterranean climate -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island