----- Original Message ----- ----- Reply: Almost certainly, since exchanges in this sort of thread are almost always argumentative; rather than sprinkle smileys throughout my posts I prefer to let the reader decide whether I'm being ironic or not. I mentally append smileys to most posts in a thread like this, on the assumption that intelligent men (women presumably having better things to do) would not spend time and energy every few months or so *seriously* arguing *once again* about where to place an e-mail reply; the humour really becomes apparent when you show a thread like this to a 'normal' person... But I wasn't saying anything about how, when or where it's done to disagree with anyway, merely stating that IMO using colour for clarity when possible and appropriate doesn't necessarily belong in the same category as Fred's wallpaper, dancing kangaroos or yodelling jellyfish; it's just one more often useful option that's come along since the text-only monochrome screens that many of us started with and seem to want to hang on to (at least in this context). m