Russ...you want a serious answer? I'll GIVE you a serious answer.....Truth is, human being's minds work differently! Often VERY differently....Don't you know people you meet everyday who can't take a joke and to whom you simply CANNOT make a pun or ironic or sacrastic remark? They just don't get it.

And there are others who take the world with a grain of salt and always seems to be 'massaging'(for want of a better term) the input of their lives. Comics page editors all over the country..(at least the U.S.), struggle constantly to please a variety or readers who have TOTALLY different ideas of what is appropriate, funny or interesting. Why should it be any different here? At a party, if some boor keeps making remarks in your conversation, you can usually just walk away or tell him to 'get lost'....but this is a ***DISCUSSION FORUM***, and the rules are a bit different. Sometimes you get the 'tone' you want, sometimes you don't.

It can be frustrating, but when you start what YOU consider a serious thread in a **PUBLIC** forum, you take the chance that some of the posters will not take the issue as seriously as you do. There a lot of very witty, bright people here who have discovered a new pasttime that beats video games and porno chat rooms as an outlet for their energies..(watch 'em run with THAT).....I suspect that in an un-moderated (read 'uncensored') forum, it will always be so.....

"If you cain't lick 'em......"...no...never mind...*grin*