Dave, I haven't finished reading all 113 pieces of e-mail (I was gone most of the day -- and so I've been attacked by the April Fool) so I don't know if anyone else has answered your question. I never thought about it before, but it's a good question -- and once I hear something like that I become obssessed with finding the answer. Thanks to google, (my eytymological dictionary didn't help) here's the explanation. ?Why are pounds, when used as a weight, abbreviated lbs?? The origin is in the Latin word libra, which could mean both balance scales (hence the symbol for the astrological sign Libra, which was named after a constellation that was thought to resemble scales) and also a pound weight, for which the full expression was libra pondo, the second word being the origin of our pound. Guido, did you or Alyosius know that? Maybe I needn't have looked it up (smile). Cindy __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Personals - Better first dates. More second dates. http://personals.yahoo.com