"Then I put "favourite" in the box, and the list was about the same mix - with surprisingly few duds." A pat on the back for thosds se of us on the Mudcat who aren't from America!

Actually, I think it is just that there aren't so many of us. And the pain-in-the-arses (or -asses) are a pretty small proportion of Mudcatters anyway, so even if the same proportion of us over here fall into that category (which I imagine is the case), that wouldn't add up to many.

Joe writes "I don't often start threads, however. I think it's usually harder to come up with an intelligent question, than it is to come up with an intelligent answer." But I don't think there's any need to think of asking a question as the only reason to start a thread. That isn't how all conversations start in the face-to-face world.