Mary Sue wrote “Sometimes I think the members of this list are more interested in talking about food than bulbs. I suspect it drives some people who subscribed to talk about bulbs, corms, rhizomes, tubers, geophytes crazy” Yet why should it be otherwise? Throughout history and throughout the world today geophytes are major human food sources. The multi billion dollar fast food industry is based on a geophyte, the potato. The grocery stores are full of geophytes: potatoes, sweet potatoes, yuca (manihot), onions, garlic, shallots, water chestnuts, taro and many other edible aroids, and in upscale markets or ethnic markets such things as true lilies, oxalis, tropaeolum, yacon and lots of odd-looking gnarly things I don’t recognize. You are wired very differently than I am if you can look at bulbs and not be aware at some level of their salient sapid quality. Thanks to these wide-ranging discussions I’ve learned about the comestible oxalis and tropaeolum, I’ve learned about yacon: when I first saw this word (in a culinary context) I thought it was a misprint for bacon. Now I not only know what yacon is but I realize that a member of the same genus grows in the local woods (I won’t say anything more about this one because the local one is not a geophyte. Other than Aaron, I doubt if anyone else who posts frequently on the list would know about it.) As far as the complainers are concerned, I just don’t get it. It’s not as if there is only so much room on the list for postings, and that an enthusiastically pursued thread is going to crowd out some other thread. And I’m not so narcissistic to expect others to post only things of interest to me. This group is much better disciplined than some I’ve seen about keeping the chit chat to a minimum and using the subject line usefully. I have a hunch some people need to learn to use the delete key more frequently. And then there is this: why do people complain to Mary Sue? That makes no sense to me. Why not address directly in a private email the person who is doing something you think is inappropriate? We post in what is essentially an email format, and email is notoriously clumsy about expressing the subtleties of actual speech: it’s easy to misunderstand what people mean, to misconstrue someone’s intentions. A non-threatening, private response might be enough to nudge some one in a different direction – or it might induce a response which helps you understand why things happened the way they did. I do agree with Mary Sue about the inappropriateness of chit-chat responses. For instance, when I thanked Alberto for his response to my olive pit question, I was not setting a good example: I should have done that privately. Some of us are more prolix than others. You know who we are. That’s where the delete key comes in handy. Remember, some of us are older, have long attention spans and like to read; we enjoy a carefully crafted phrase now and then, and we’re not comfortable with information delivered in sound bites. Those of you with adult onset ADD (aka media-induced ADD) will just have to contribute and develop your own threads expressed in the mode you’re used to. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7, where we're in for another day with temperatures over 70 degrees F. My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/