// following method donated by Thomas Russ:
public List doQuery(String query) {
ArrayList ret = null;
try {
PlIterator rawAnswer = PLI.sRetrieve(query, workingModule, null);
ret = new ArrayList<ArrayList<String>>(rawAnswer.length());
Iterator answer =
new edu.isi.stella.javalib.StellaIterator(rawAnswer);
while (answer.hasNext()) {
Object obj = answer.next();
int nItems = PLI.getColumnCount((edu.isi.stella.Stella_Object)obj);