Barry,
Not entirely tongue in cheek because there has and continues to 
be confusion over many terms in histology.  Your kitchen and 
sphgetti analogy - which I enjoyed but cannot spell - was 
wonderful.  The remarks about Rowmanovsky (is it sky for males 
and ski for females, or is there some other rule, or is it arbitrary?  I 
was told once and have forgotten) are also pertinent.
It is my personal rule - which I would have liked to become the 
"Allison Rule", but that is obviously doomed! - is the one I 
descirbed.
I shall write to Jim from Oz separately to aplogise for being so 
sharp and wish that my staining could only be equally so.

Russ Allison, 
Dental School
Cardiff
Wales