About three-and-a-half years ago, we received a book called Colour Atlas of Ectomycorrhizae from Einhorn-Verlag, a German publishing company. Besides wondering vaguely what the hell ectomycorrhizae were when they were at home (the book was sealed, and thus little help in answering this question), there was very little to be done with it, as there was absolutely no record of our having ordered the thing. Eventually, two things were figured out. First of all, it was determined that the book had actually been ordered some 10 years previously, as a special order, and had long ago been given up on by the customer. Secondly, Ectomycorrhizae are fungal in nature. So, as it was patently absurd to try to send the thing back to Germany for a refund (besides, the publisher had kept the faith for a decade, which has to count for something), we decided to sling it into our Biology section and see if there were any takers. I don't recall if it sold or not, but it vanished from our shelves at some point. In any case, just the other day I opened up a distantly-familiar-looking envelope from Germany, and, lo-and-behold, we were the proud owners of yet another copy of Colour Atlas of Ectomycorrhizae!! Ye gods!! Deja vu all over again!! Once again, there is no record of anyone having ordered it, and this time, were pretty sure it's not an ancient special order. Did Einhorn-Verlag send a spy around to check our biology shelf for the previous copy? Does the book contain some secret transmitter, sending messages to the secret Einhorn-Verlag fortress of power whenever they detect a gap in their worldwide coverage of things fungoid? Is this [lowers voice, peers around conspiratorially] a plot by the ectomycorrhizae themselves, operating through their German front company, to spread their sinister manifesto around the globe? Oh well, whatever. Off to the Biology section with the book, and we'll see if we get another mysterious parcel in a few years...