Dear Tom,
 
     I'm glad you liked my images.  It does always seem that we want to be
where we aren't!  Eskimos want to grow palm trees, etc.  As for being a Trivia
nut, I'll have to claim to being just a plain nut.  What little I know about
them doesn't include a listing of valid species.  There are so many tiny ones
I'll probably never have in my collection...that my knowledge of the Genus
will always be limited.
 
     As for the sophistication of different parts of the country- I think the
US is basically the same all over (Generica).  I read that television is
giving everyone a Californian accent?!  I do think the level of friendliness
(or lack of) can be easily noticed.
 
Sincerely,   Matt