Homeless, for Heaven's sake, please ask your "beginner" questions! everyone's a beginner at something. Some of the beginner questions get some of the most in-depth threads going around here. And that question is more likely to be something that somebody else always wondered about, than something that "everybody else knows". Besides, if somebody knows the answer, it gives them the chance to show off their knowledge a little by sharing it. BTW, I see the 'cat as something like a conversation with friends who share the same interest. Conversations like that include tangents, bad jokes, etc. nobody wrote a law saying that you have to read Every Thread. Why complain? If you don't want to read 'em, don't.