Great blog Lynn, almost a ten-course dinner. I was lucky enough awhile ago to have a home-cooked meal in Italy. When the pasta came to the table, the young cook brought it forth like a sacred icon and told her husband (an expat American) to stop joking and serve the guests immediately. Ever since I've been musing about the pre-eminence of wheat around the Mediterranean. Tabbouleh, couscous, kibbeh, pasta. Wheat in forms perfected by many cultures and treated with reverence in all.

Last night a friend asked me if Morocco was headed for the same kind of intense, even violent turmoil as we've seen in Egypt and Libya. I replied No. So I'm very grateful to read this long account of events by an immediate observer. Bravo to the good people of Tangiers! and TALIM.

I profiled Pearl in Fine Gardening magazine about 1991, and he was the same man then, with the same goals, as now. After all these years he has indeed inspired the young people of Bishopville, not to mention some of his neighbors, showing all that hard work leads to great things.