All I can say in reply is that I will try to remember to remove that bit of personal cruft (along with several others that seems to get people hot under the collar around here:) from my code when I post. I will continue to use it in my own code though, as it seems to prevent more problems than it causes.

I'm not dimissing the logic of your conclusion, only going with what I've found works for me.

I agree the whole BEGIN block thing is..um...inconsistant is the politest word I can think of:) Another one of those 'special cases'. I'm quite disconcerted by the way all of the special blocks work, but I seem to be in a minority of one. There was a recent thread regarding the invocation order of BEGIN/END blocks where I expressed a contrary opinion and was roundly set upon. I guess this is another where my opinions are best kept to my self.