At one time or another Occam's razor, Hickam's dictum, soaps on the tele, all responded to our desire for meaning. Fresh out of Africa, or possibly a tad earlier, we spat on our hands, asked one another why no one had yet invented elbow grease, and with a soft shrug we got on with the nitty gritty of life here on earth. Since then we've not done badly: mozaics, Newton, a few boffo battles, some marble busts, big and bigger Buddhas, Gray's elegy, Chemistry. Of late, there's tourism, boldly going with apps to our ears, copping one another's odd outfits while making plans to meet. But there's a flaw in our commemorative agenda. Where is the plaque marking, if not the very spot, at least a plausible guess, where came the first woman, looking more closely than was the norm, she who discovered berries no one knew were good. That's just an example; in the world of plaques prehistory lacks. And no wonder. How are we to know where to erect Augusta's needle? Here, surely is ripe chance, opportunity for new and innovative theoretical and theatrical and genuinely historical gesture. If only there were funds. Literally. David Ritchie, Portland, Oregon------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html