Alexander, THANK YOU for the pointer to the //= info, and also explaining it.

I very much appreciate your explaining the one line of code, and breaking it out to 7 lines where I can see what's happening more fully. I'll step through it with a debugger so I can make sure I understand how this is working. (references, mostly, but it's used recursively elsewhere, and because the original code is compact and seems to work magically.)

Your 1-line condensation (without spaces!) didn't go unnoticed. LOL

And you had an OUTSTANDING sig there on the end of your post. (I'm gonna borrow that, if you don't mind.)

Right up there with the coffee mug my wife gave me that says, "Of course I talk to myself. Where else am I going to get expert advice?" (I think she's riffing on my talking to myself, because she sure doesn't take any of my advice.)

Again, THANK YOU, Alexander!