I forgot to mention that Seeds by Design sends out a list of the varieties available from them, at wholsale seed prices, they aren't a retail place, and that list is sent to almost every place you can think of and that's why you see Mr. Stripey and many others at all the big Box Stores as plants from their commercial suppliers.
it was on that list that Cherokee Purple was listed as Purple Cherokee so when seeing the latter you knew where the seeds were from and it was also on that list that Opalka was spelled Olapka, or whatever, which led me into some interesting chats at Pinetree Seeds with the owner.
hornstrider, by all means grow it, I wouldn't call it finicky, see how you like it this year and then don't make up your mind of it having a permanent place in your garden until you grow it a second year when the weather is different.
As for me, I give a variety two years to make up my mind before ditching it, and that's if the variety comes to me from folks that I know well , other than that, I was always growing different varieties all the time, b'c the more you grow the greater the data base you have on assessing new varieties.