Chatological Humor *

Under the Boondocks

Gene Weingarten (Richard Thompson - The Washington Post)

*Formerly known as "Funny? You Should Ask."

Gene Weingarten's controversial humor column, Below the Beltway, appears every Sunday in the Washington Post Magazine. He aspires to someday become a National Treasure, but is currently more of a National Gag Novelty Item, like rubber dog poo. He is also reputed to be close to persons thought to be familiar with individuals claiming to be authoritative spokesmen for the mysterious and reclusive Czar of The Style Invitational.

He is online, at any rate, each Tuesday, to take your questions and abuse.

He'll chat about anything.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

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Gene Weingarten: Good afternoon.

Kudos to a coworker of mine for his subject line on an email he forwarded. It was a story from the New York Daily News about two young women who were advertising online that, in return for tickets to the Yankees-Red Sox playoff series, they would perform what they called "a four-hand massage" that promised to deliver satisfaction. The subject line:

New Meaning To the Term "Yanks' Tickets."

What are "kudos," anyway? Well, I looked it up, and it turns out the actual question is "What IS kudos?" It's singular! It's from the Greek, meaning "glory." I tried to think of other singular words ending in s that sound like plural words, but failed. Anyone?

Elsewhere on the sports front, several persons have sent me neener-neener e-mails over my story yesterday about the Curse of Zimmer, citing last night's Boston win. Listen, I didn't declare that the Red Sucks would never win a playoff GAME again. They just won't win a playoff SERIES. Watch. (Anyway, the whole point of the story was an occasion to run side-by-side pictures of Zim and Jabba the Hutt.)

The cartoon pick of the week is today's Pearls Before Swine, obviously, for the magnificent darkness at its heart. Also, I can't help commenting on two recent B.C.'s - Oct. 8, in which Johnny seems to make an eloquent argument for the merits of bulimia, and yesterday's, wherein he is kind enough to inform our children, once again, of the One Road to Salvation.

We need to drop this strip, now, and replace it with Frazz. While Johnny was busy being insane, Jef Mallett was producing the strips linked below. That's this week's assignment: Compare and contrast.

Questions? Comments?

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Grand, MA: Sunday's column was such an epiphany for me because that's what my life is like ALL THE TIME. I think it's hereditary, too, because sometimes if you ask my grandmother if she did anything today, she'll sigh, shake her head and say "Just makin' messes and steppin' in 'em." We're country people, so we use lots of apostrophes. It's so wonderful to know that we're not alone!

washingtonpost.com: Below the Beltway, (Post Magazine, Oct. 12)

Gene Weingarten: "Just makin' messes and steppin' in ?em" may be one of the most disgusting expressions I've ever heard. Good for grandma!

Several readers wrote in with their own tales of dysfunctionality and absent-mindedness, though none approaches my favorite: My friend Karl Vick, a Post reporter, once slammed his own head in a car door.

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washingtonpost.com: Beware the Curse of Zimmer, (Post, Oct. 13)
Cartoon Pick of the Week: Pearls Before Swine, (Oct. 14)
Frazz:
Oct. 8
Oct. 10
Oct. 11
Oct. 13


B.C. links coming right up...

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washingtonpost.com: B.C., (Oct. 8, B.C., (Oct. 13)

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Beautiful Silver Spring, Md.: What in the name of Nolan Ryan was Pedro supposed to do when the 72-year-old bench coach of the Yankees comes running at him with fists ineffectually raised, Gene? Play matador with the aged bull? Show him the respect of duking it out with him and send him to the hospital for real instead of as a self-serving "precautionary" publicity stunt? Point out how vastly unprofessional it is for a coach, who is supposed to have a leveler head in these kinds of disputes than his players, to be charging one player specifically instead of trying to break up any altercations that may have already arisen?

Pedro shouldn't have thrown at Garcia and shouldn't have been gesturing like that, but Zimmer should know better, having been in baseball since 1 million B.C., than to come out after Pedro on the delusional pretense that he could take him. Pedro selected the least bad option available. No curse applies. Bosox in 7.

Gene Weingarten: Immediately before the moment in question, Pedro had just behaved like the animal he is. He threw at a man's head so egregiously that even the normally reticent announcers called it deliberate. Pedro then informed the entire Yankees dugout, via pantomime, that he was going to bean them all. (This alone should have gotten him instantly suspended from the game.) Shortly after that performance, a Red Sox player, the notoriously infantile Manny Ramirez, went charging at the Yankees pitcher, bat in hand, after reacting to a pitch that was clearly and unambiguously NOT thrown at him. Manny wanted a fight.

So where are we? At the moment that the terribly fearsome 72-year-old blob of Jello jiggled his way toward Pedro Martinez, filled with understandable fury and inexcusable bad judgment and absolutely no physical ability to cause injury, the Red Sox were seriously in the wrong and very much in need of showing contrition and/or restraint. What Pedro should have done was what big brothers have always done when little brothers, filled with impotent fury, come swinging at them. He should have figuratively or literally put a hand on top of Zim's head as Zim flailed impotently away. What he should NOT have done is body-slam the old guy to the ground.

It is instructive that of all the participants in this ridiculous event, only Zim - with the least to apologize for - has apologized. Tearfully. He understood that he looked like a foolish old man. Pedro clearly does not understand what he looked like.

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Stupid C, AR: Howdy,

Sorry to take so long to send in my brilliant observation, but much like yourself, my life gets in the way of my good intentions.

The stupidest car name ever has to be the Dodge Intrepid. Can you imagine needing to pull out into fast moving traffic and have to rely on a car named "Intrepid?" Totally stupid.

By the way, how many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Apple.

Adios.

Gene Weingarten: The Protege is even stupider.

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Coral Gables, Fla.: Is it not true that George Steinbrenner is actually the Antichrist? Have you ever seen George Steinbrenner and the Antichrist together? I did not think so.

washingtonpost.com: Have you seen Gene and Ron Jeremy together?

Gene Weingarten: 1) It is interesting that Ms. Liz even knows what Ron Jeremy looks like.

2) This poster, is, I believe, Dave Barry. David, my man, you make a good point, but of course George has never been seen together with the antichrist. The owner of the Yankees should not fraternize with a pitcher on an opposing team.

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Washington, D.C.: Hi Gene,

You are SO right about B.C. I've been personally boycotting this strip for years.

Who do I write to at The Post to get rid of it?

Thanks!

Gene Weingarten: Shirley Carswell. A female Shirley. Comix Czarina.

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Ghettopoly: Let me get this out of the way first: I'm white.

Normally I am appropriately outraged at racism and other forms of bigotry wherever I find them. However, I just don't see the big deal about Ghettopoly.

There's something in the Bible about reaping what you've sown, and if you watch MTV or BET at all, black artists have sown plenty.

I'm hard pressed to cite a rap or hip hop video that doesn't feature nearly naked ladies jiggling their stuff for leering rappers. Plus there's the whole pimp/ho aesthetic that's making the rounds, an egregious example of which was Snoop Dogg's attending the MTV awards with two women on a LEASH! Funny, I didn't hear the NAACP protesting then.

Then there are the endless songs and movies glorifying the "gangsta" lifestyle, replete with drug dealing and gunfights and babies of unknown patrimony.

Is this representative of the black community? I doubt it. But it's what mainstream black artists choose to flood the airwaves with, so that the rest of the country (like the Ghettopoly creator) gets a distorted view of African American culture.

I'm not saying I think Ghettopoly is funny. I don't. Nor will I buy it. But it didn't come out of nowhere. If black people are outraged, they can fight back by boycotting the kind of demeaning music and movies that reinforce the stereotypes that inspired Ghettopoly in the first place.

washingtonpost.com: 'Ghettopoly' Incites Protests, (Post, Oct. 12),
Jabari Asim: Ghettopoly Crosses the Line, (Post, Oct. 13)

Gene Weingarten: I think you are wrong. I think you can accurately call this game "parody," as the creator of this game does. But it is parody only in the sense that all ethnic humor is parody - the exaggerating of stereotypes. Can ethnic humor be funny? Sure. Can it be unfunny? Absolutely, particularly when the telling is done with malice by people who actually believe the stereotype.

Here's your clue, with Ghettopoly: The guy who created it was not black, and I bet dollars to donuts that the game is being purchased mostly by white people. I'll bet they are not nice white people.

What if I created a game called "Jew-opoly," in which the purpose of the game was to be miserly, cheat people, sell nuclear secrets to the Soviets, and kill Jesus? What if the mascot of the game was a character named "Schnozzo"? Yep, that would be parody. Everyone knows that it's making fun of ridiculous stereotypes. No one really believes this describes most Jews, right? But who will buy this game? I think we all know who. You gonna defend it?

To me, Ghettopoly seems equally ugly.

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Bust, IN: Good acronym for you:

Dr. Susan Boolbol, a breast surgeon in NYC -- of course, the first L is silent...

Gene Weingarten: Excellent!

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Fayetteville, N.C.: As a former owner, I hearby submit that now and forever, the dumbest name for a car was... Probe.

washingtonpost.com: You've got a point there.

Gene Weingarten: Absolutely correct. I forgot about this one! Why not the Ford Speculum? Or the Ford Rectal Thermometer.

Debate closed.

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Laurel, Md.: Er, if Shirley Carswell is Der Comic-czar, what's Suzanne Tobin's role?

Public face no one listens to?

Gene Weingarten: Suzanne reports to Shirley, as I understand it.

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South Cali, land of the Governator: Hey, Monday's "Boondocks" wasn't half bad. It wasn't funny, but more importantly it wasn't half bad. Could this mean that the "Boondocks" are on a comeback trail?!

Also, I like "Mutts." A lot. Is there something wrong with me?

I'm a guy, by the way.

washingtonpost.com: Hmm. I went to find a link and found this message online where the comic would normally be:
"The Washington Post has decided not to publish this week's Boondocks strip. The comic will return to washingtonpost.com Oct. 19."

But here it is on Yahoo.

Gene Weingarten: Oboy. I hate this. Yes, we've decided not to run Boondocks this week because the story line seems to be an ad-feminem attack on Condi Rice. (Liz, please link to today's strip, which clears up the confusion.)

This one is interesting, and I have not asked our comics people why they dumped it. On one hand, I'm tempted to say that if we let Johnny Hart blather and drool and fulminate all over the page, we might as well let anyone else say whatever the heck they want.

But that's a copout. I am not in the office, so I have not seen where McGruder is taking this storyline, but based on today's offering alone, I don't think I would have cut it. It's very strong and opinionated and quite mean, and it presumes something I don't know (that because Condi Rice is unmarried she does not have a man she loves) but it seems like reasonable and defensible political commentary. And Lord knows, I'd like to encourage McGruder to get back his edge.

I wonder if The Post would have been quite as prim had the subject of this strip been a single man and not a single woman.

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Excre, MT: Recently, my sister-in-law pointed out that the word "Chatological" is spelled almost the same as the word "Scatological". Did this similarity have anything to do with your choice of this chat's new name?

Gene Weingarten: No! And I like where you're coming from.

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Whee, ME: Many thanks for your Post Mag column on Sunday. My wife was so stunned by your mindless incompetence that she coined a new phrase to express her love and affection for me: "At least you're not Gene Weingarten!;"

Gene Weingarten: You owe me big time.

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Ghettopoly: Good points, Gene. Richard Pryor used to make fun of black stereotypes, but his humor had an underlying anti-racism message. All the makers of Ghettopoly wanted to do is laugh at, not with, black people.

Gene Weingarten: Zackerly.

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washingtonpost.com: Boondocks, (Oct. 14)

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Dodge City: I can't believe I never noticed it before, but what kind of car name is Dodge? Do you really want to name a car "get out of the way"?!; Almost as bad as the Nova.

Gene Weingarten: Another good point! In Dave's first novel, he had an airline named "Impact! Air."

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NOT CLOSED: How is HUMMER not totally inappropriate. Sure, I get it, HUMVEE, but now it's just another joke? The oversized virility-replacement car for men named for a sexual act?

Gene Weingarten: Hummer is a GOOD name.

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Gaithersburg, Md.: I have a theory that Carl Hiasen is not a real person, but is instead the pen-name for a Dave Barry/Steven King collaboration. Could there be any truth in that? If not how do you explain the concentration of humor writers in South Florida?

Gene Weingarten: Little known obscure fact: Before Dave Barry started writing regular humor columns for the Miami Herald's Tropic magazine, Carl Hiaasen was writing regular humor columns for Tropic magazine.

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Condi: Ad feminam. With an "a" for 1st declension noun, accusative case, single number (the noun AND Condi). But good thought.

Gene Weingarten: Thank you.

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Ghettopoly: I don't know who created the game, but if was a black person, then I think it shows the ability to laugh at oneself. Remember what the show "In Living Color" did. It was black people making fun of black people and not taking it so seriously. I was raised in Kentucky and someone once called me a redneck. I said, no no, I am not a redneck; technically I am a hillbilly. I can laugh at my roots. If they can too, why not?

Gene Weingarten: Good in theory. But the game was invented by an Asian man.

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I'm trying not to be a hard s...: but the problem with kudos is that wacky Americans have messed up the pronunciation, changing the soft s that it should have to a hard s; in English, a word ending in a vowel (like tomato) tends to get a hard s when pluralized, so we think that "koo-doze" is more than one kudo. If it were "koo-dose", the way that it is pronounced in Greek, then we'd be more likely to recognize that it's singular, like we do for cactus and octopus and clitoris.

(Anticipating the logical follow-up questions: cacti, octopodes, and clitorides.)

Gene Weingarten: Octopodes???????
Clitorides?????

These can't be right.

Wait, I checked. They are.

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Cartoon World: An interview with Aaron MacGruder is being aired today on Fresh Air (NPR talk show with Terry Gross, for those who don't know).

For those who can't listed today, go to Fresh Air's Web site.

There is usually a several day delay between when the interview is aired and when it is uploaded.

Gene Weingarten: Oooh, I do want to hear it. He has much to explain.

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Tole, D'OH: Not a CPOTW, but did anyone notice that in Monday's Cathy, Ms. Guisewite demonstrated that she apparently can't count to four?

washingtonpost.com: Cathy, (Oct. 13)

Gene Weingarten: I totally missed this. It is completely bizarre.

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Ridiculo, US: This whole comics thing is getting a little out of hand.

Thank goodness you can find all of these on the Web, so I can read "Frazz" and the "Boondocks" and whatever else I want (and avoid all the crap). I didn't even know The Post wasn't running "Boondocks" this week. Blissfully unaware.

Is this why things get censored? Because the only people that actually READ the comics in the paper are the stuffy fuddy-duddys who get bent out of shape that "Cathy" got cancelled?

Gene Weingarten: No, when the Post declines to run a strip (we do this less often than most papers, I think) it is usually for a defensible reason, in my experience. I don't always agree -- actually, I almost never agree -- but I often see their point. In this case, 1) I haven't seen where McGruder goes with this, and he might be going somewhere really bad, and 2) It may be a reasonable position to take that how the hell does Aaron McGruder know whether Condi has a man she loves?

I'd still have run it.

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Fairfax, Va.: Sounds plural but is singular: uh, news?

Gene Weingarten: Ok. I'm not sure it really sounds plural.

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Befuddle, MT: Gene, I know these are disturbing times, what with the war, terrorists, Arnold on his way to Sacramento, and the possibility of a Cubs/Red Sox series. And I thought I was handling things fairly well, until your paper published a picture of General Wesley Clark wearing what appears to be capri pants and dress shoes with no socks. This just seems wrong.

washingtonpost.com: auggghhhh

Gene Weingarten: Clark appears to be dressed for a TV talking head appearance. He would have been more dignified if he had simply gone naked below the waist.

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Humorless Prune....: Yo Gene, just so you're not worried about me...I get Frazz. Hope springs eternal....

Gene Weingarten: And you're still not sure about badgers?

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Laurel, Md.: Uh, "news" is plural.

Exactly like "data" -- more than one piece of information.

BTW, I think we should just declare "data" a collective noun. Maybe once we though of data as a countable group of things; but now it usually comes in very large sets of very small things, like corn or sugar.

Gene Weingarten: So, you would say that the news from the middle east ARE bad? Uh uh.

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Times, N.Y.: There was an editor at the NYT who insisted that "news" was plural. Folks would ask if there was anything in the news, and he invariably replied, "No, not a new."

This is why I read The Post.

Gene Weingarten: Ah, there we go.

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Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.: I don't understand how your wife refrains from killing you. My husband misplaces his keys/sunglasses/eyeglasses/ID/etc., on a daily basis and I want to kill him. It makes me nuts! What is her secret for allowing you to live?

Gene Weingarten: Every once in a while I hide one of her things. She assumes she misplaced it. That way, she thinks we have a degree of parity.

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Gambrills, Md.: Re- Zimmer's Head - it's actually full of holes:

Yankees' Zimmer Has His Head Screwed on Right, (Post, Oct. 14)

Gene Weingarten: I was one of the writers who referred to a metal plate. In fact, he has metal "balloons." My bad. I guess.

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Fairfax, Va.: I thought that Boston suffered through the curse of Zimmer when he mis-managed them through the 17 game lead/collapse of '78.

Gene Weingarten: This is a reasonable point. You are the second person to mention it. (It was a 14 game lead/collapse, actually. It led to the single largest winning bet I ever made.)

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Grammar woes: Oh, Gene. I am devasted. I have been dating a very friendly, intelligent, funny man for several months. My dilemma is that I am a HUGE stickler for written grammar and he just sent me an email containing the following sentence: "I hope your having a great day."

I'm not sure there's any going back after this. Have you noticed the alarming amount of literate adults who seem to have COMPLETELY forgotten learning about contractions? I'm not gonna lie; this is purely horrifying.

washingtonpost.com: Hmmm, so stickler, what's "devasted" mean?

Gene Weingarten: Also, you mean an alarming NUMBER of literate adults.

Man, this is a mean chat.

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Hotda, MN: Re: Occasionally hiding one's wife's things. That is brilliant, thank you.

Gene Weingarten: DON'T TELL HER.

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N, PR: Not because I want to call attention to anything Bill O'Reilly does, but his performance on Fresh Air last week was high comedy. It's amazing how much of a baby a 50-something year old man can be. When you hear him, you wonder how anyone can take him seriously, not just as a talking head, but as a man. It's like the 5th Grade bully who starts crying the day someone turns the tables on him.

Gene Weingarten: I'm glad you mentioned this, because it reminds me of something I wanted to say: Al Franken's book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" is absolutely brilliant. He carves O'Reilly a new one, in a totally absorbing and convincing way.

Also, "Mystic River" is a terrrific movie. See it.

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Crystal City, VA: Gene, you are always talking about wanting "Frazz" in The Post. Do you have any opinion on "Over the Hedge?" Great strip and they're even making a movie out of it starring Jim Carrey and Gary Shandling.

Gene Weingarten: I don't know this strip, really. Seen it only once or twice. It looks well drawn, though this particular one leaves me cold.

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Gerb, IL: You wrote; "So where are we? At the moment that the terribly fearsome 72-year-old blob of Jello jiggled his way toward Pedro Martinez, filled with understandable fury and inexcusable bad judgment and absolutely no physical ability to cause injury..."

Wrong. Zim could have tripped into Pedro and crushed him to death.

Gene Weingarten: Wrong. Had Zim tripped into Pedro, it would have been like the inflation of an airbag.

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Muti, NY: Gene,

Is the Washington Post management at all upset with you for calling Shirley Carswell (Comix Czarina) on the mat every stinking week?.

Gene Weingarten: I'm not calling her on the carpet. We have a pretty good comix pages, and some recent add-on decisions have been good. I am urging her upward and onward.

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Atlanta, Ga.: Even most Southerners get this wrong, but "grits" is singular.

Gene Weingarten: Wrong. Plural.

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Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.: Al Franken was at Olsson's yesterday signing books. He invited the crowd to Blackies for beer afterward. He said he thinks you are very funny.

Gene Weingarten: Well, more on this later. I am attempting to get Mr. Franken to participate in a column, but so far he's been stiffing me.

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Pot Calling Kettle, BK: Thank you for your clear, unbiased take on Game 3 of the ALCS. When Pedro picked up that shard of bat and threw it AT Karim Garcia and then came up with the LAME excuse that he "thought it was the ball," he should have been heaved from organized baseball. Oh wait, that was something else...

Gene Weingarten: You have not heard me defend that. However, I will: Clemens rescued an otherwise horrific action by coming up with the single funniest excuse I have ever heard.

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Birthcan, AL: I suspect that while a number of adults have forgotten about contractions, none of them is a woman.

Gene Weingarten: Nice. And where you come from, too.

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Lil' help, please....: I need a good excuse...a sudden one...that will enable me to get out by 3:30 so's to watch the game. Any thoughts?

Cubs over the Sox in 6.

Gene Weingarten: Say you are going into labor. Most supervisors won't question that.

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Arlington, Va.: I have a question for the Czar that maybe you could answer, or maybe you could pass it along to him. The contest for this week was to come up with ways to make life more difficult than it needs to be. I have a big problem with the fact that Russell Beland's entry of "The terms 'Inner Loop' and 'Outer Loop' are replaced by 'Clockwise' and 'Counter-Clockwise'" made it in. I will admit that I have only driven on the beltway about three times in my life, but I still fail to see how that would be more difficult. First of all, I know some people who don't know the difference between the inner and outer loops, they don't know which one goes which way, and this would help them out. Second of all, you're lucky if the signs even say inner or outer loop. I remember one trip where I had to get on to the beltway at a point almost as far north as the beltway gets, and I didn't get to choose inner or outer loop. The signs conveniently gave me the option of North or South. I honestly had no idea what I wanted. I wanted East. I wanted the inner loop. I wanted clockwise. But I had to choose North or South. with the assistance of my navigator, we decided to just go for one and hope it was correct. So I guess my question is this: how would "clockwise" and "couterclockwise" make it harder than it needs to be? if anything, wouldn't that make it easier? Poop.

Gene Weingarten: Is there ANYONE who agrees with this person?

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Salem, Ore.: Sounds plural but is singular: politics.

Gene Weingarten: That's it! I knew there was one. Thank you.

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New York, N.Y.: Do you think that e-mail and online chats are contributing to the demise of proper grammar?

Gene Weingarten: Well, not this chat, but e-mail for sure. IMing in particular.

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POTW: (pick of the week. kind of like POTUS, but not.)

Just wanted to submit a double vote for Pastis: Sunday and today. These two were fantastic!

Gene Weingarten: Ah. Now I am glad someone brought this up. As I said, Pastis today was great. I think Sunday was a serious misfire -- an error of laziness. It was a great idea, but he seemed to make no effort to extract ironic humor from it. With a little more care, he could have had the punchlines seem to be bizarrely funny in context. It was an abortion of a strip. I applaud the impulse, but boo the execution.

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Re: Arlington, Va.: While I disagree, I can see the point. At some point, the Beltway becomes such a mess that there is no making it more complex. Clockwise and counter-clockwise, furthermore, would not require one to know if they were inside or outside the Beltway before choosing a loop.
Doody

Gene Weingarten: Okay.

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Re: directions on Beltway: Yes, I agree with the chatter that the signs on the beltway make no sense and in fact clockwise and counterclockwise are actually easier to navigate. I have encountered the NOrth and South signs and mentally flipped a coin as to which way to go.

Gene Weingarten: Ok, too.

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Washington, D.C.: Hello Gene. I used to think you were an witless, obviously insecure fool. But after reading your story about France I've kinda grown to like you and, your gratuitously male humor notwithstanding, you no longer annoy me as much as you used to.

Keep up the good work.

Gene Weingarten: Conversely, while I lusted hugely after you for many, many years, I now find you kind of dumpy.

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Pat the Perfect, ME: This chat certainly does not contribute to the demise of proper grammar!; (Unless, of course, there are no questions submitted to the proper authorities.)

Gene Weingarten: I only ask for help when I need it. Have I scrood up today, pthep?

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Somewhere, USA: Sorry, Franken hasn't been funny in years. He is a bitter bitter man without a real joke left. and I agree with his politics.

Gene Weingarten: Oh, you are really wrong. I am jealous of his new book. It is really masterful. Buy it and if you disagree, I'll buy it from you.

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Russ Beland, ME:
I have been using my clockwise / counter-clockwise joke for a couple of years. There are a good chunk of people who find this a really, really, really terrible way to think about the roads and others who think it would be just as good, or bad, as inner- and outer-loop. This means some people don't get the joke, but that never stops me.

Gene Weingarten: Russ, in my experience, NOTHING stops you.

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Irate in DC: That B.C. cartoon is hideously offensive, not to mention dangerous. Abuse of ipecac syrup for weight loss can cause serious, even life-threatening health problems. I suggest that everyone reading this chat write the Post and demand that they drop B.C. in favor of a comic that's less, well, neanderthal.

Gene Weingarten: Ok, we'll exit on that. Thanks all. You are continuing to set records for total postings. Next week, same time.

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