2 General MySQL Questions

hi, i'm awared that this is not exactly the correct forum for these questions. please humor me this one time: 1) can anyone refer me please to a public, postable MySQL newsgroup? i've found a few MySQL newsgroups, but none of them allows posting. it would be great if you could also tell me the name of the (public) newsgroup server hosting the group. if you don't know of a newsgroup, how about a good (digest-capable) mailing list? i've tried the MySQL general mailing list, but they don't offer a 'digest' option and i can't handle getting hundreds of posts a day in my inbox. 2) who can refer me to a good intermediate tutorial to better learn MySQL syntax? again, i've been to mysql.com, but i find the structure & format of the site somehow daunting (not as user-friendly as the annotated manual at php.net). thanks muchly, tom