WIGAR - When I'm good and ready. Which is polite. I have found that the best ( not the only ) method of defending oneself against ruder's is to be polite and calm. Verbally, nothing disarms like talking softly. Case in point, Pierre Elliot Trudeau always talked softly and politely, unless someone crossed the line. Then he used whatever the situation called for. I am reminded of the time a heckler would not let him speak. After much patience, PET motioned him to the dais and WHISPERED something directly to him and the heckling ceased. When asked later, PET said he asked the heckler to allow him to speak in a manner that the heckler would understand. Politely and privately being told to fuck off can be quite disarming, although PET publically preferred the term Fuddle Duddle. Of course, this incident may have had more impact on the heckler because not long before that incident, PET laid a sweet, short thrashing on a photographer that crossed the line. By the way, PET, as in "pet", is not normally used when referring to one of Canada's greatest statesmen because this is the french term for breaking wind.

For those of you still reading this extended diatribe, although ASAP is polite, I consider it less polite than AYEC. It's kind of like those little red tags I like to rip off of office "hot files" that denote extreme urgency, rather than a personal word, with an explanation, to the same effect. I have always belived that the first person to be let go in a downsizing should be the person who uses the most red tags because they are usually the ones who create the need for red tags through incompetance. Remember, PPPPPP.

gnu