For the uninitiated, if you can olfactorize (as opposed to visualize) the
smell and flavour of wet shoe-leather, you've got a fair approximation of
Lapsang Souchong."

Yeah, that's a tea, Joe. We like it to finish off a Chinese dinner.
It is to tea as Laphraoig is to Scotch.

Wife wants to visit Nova Scotia area this August-----anyone with info or
suggestion for lodging

I was there back in October, Joe. In Yarmouth, we stayed at the
Colony Inn. Not fancy but clean and pleasant. Great food at the big
yellow house-like restaurant down the waterfront road from there.
Sorry, I forget its name.

In Halifax, we stayed at the Westin, because everything else was full.
But it was reasonable ($60 per night per person).

If you get to Glace Bay, Cape Breton Island (part of Nova Scotia), by
all means stay at Vespers.

And don't fail to see Louisbourg, a restored (a la Colonial
Williamsburg) French fort-settlement on the east coast of Cape Breton
Island. Enough there to spend the whole day.

Interesting Alexnder Graham Bell museum at Baddeck, and a lovely drive
over.

Yes, you can use a fly rod there.

vince