Yo Kevin205, Thanks for taking the time, much appreciated, and much food for thought. Still hard to operationalize with the aging brain, though.

So do categories have to be related linearly, as in your example: wines(products)= subset of colors = subset of regions. Is it possible to have wines=products, but with category1=regions, category2=subregions, category3=price group, etc., where each wine/product belongs to several categories of the same level? Where does v_categories_name2, etc. fit in? If all my products are wines (most are, but not all), does that mean all the wines would have to be under the same parent category (in this case, "region")?

Thanks!

Btw, some years ago I explored ZC for another site of mine, and found it too complicated. Lately I explored WPEC and found it too complicated, so came back to ZC. That decision was based on the observation that ZC is way more of a community, and even though a lot of this is a stretch for me, I really appreciate the fact that people here actually read and respond to these pleas for help. In today's world, that's a rare and beautiful thing. So thanks again.