<<I'm surprised at how often people self-consciously apologize for their comments at the end of their messages.>> I only did so because my post didn't have anything directly to do with Salanger or his fiction. True, there shouldn't be strict rules governing what we talk about on this list, but the subscribers of this list shouldn't have to wade through tons of garbage posts having nothing to do with our subject. I'm not saying we do have to wade through garbage, as I'm very content with content (are they spelled differently? :)) of this list. I'm only saying that whenever I post anything not directly related to Salanger, I feel that maybe I'm pulling us in the wrong direction. There have been numerous posts that have suggested keeping more to the subject. Saying that, I continue posting whatever I want, so it obviously doesn't bother me too much. The apology was for anyone that read my entire post and thought to themselves, "well that post was a waste of my time." I'm sure there's at least ONE person whom got that impression, so thats for them and ho hum life goes on. Yes I guess I am fairly self concious about my postings. Its all Scottie's fault! Just kidding. I'm sorry if my apology irritated anyone on this list...<wink> Eric