ello, i think most people's first salinger experience tends to be catcher. mine was franny and zooey. i read catcher after i'd gone through all of the other published stories. and to be honest, i'd never heard of salinger before i came across f&z (naive, i know), which was a little penguin paperback with a bright pink cover. the name zooey was so odd i picked it up and had a browse. the first word i saw was martini. <italic>martini, </italic>no less. i'd just discovered the joys of a dry martini (not franny's favourite way) and smiled to myself and carried on reading. read all of franny in the bookshop, bought it, fell in love with the thing. theothers followed soon behind. and f&z is still my favourite. so whenever i think of salinger, one of the first words that springs to mind is martini. and is still drink them bone dry. with an olive. toodleloo, craig <nofill>