My last two contributions elicited such terrific responses that I am inspired to assay another essay. In the PA-Dutch region in which I was raised, we had an expression that I am inclined to believe was peculiar to that region. We would ask, "What for a [thing] is this?". This was a direct translation from PA-Dutch " Wos fah e'n [ding] is des?". In German, "Was für" means "What sort or kind of". It could also nean "what"; as in, "Was für ein schönes haus". "What a lovely house". Anyway, it was a common idiom in my home town. Where you say "what kind of" today; we said "what for". "What for a house", "What for a hat", "What for a machine". Today we say "car"; when I was a boy, we said "automobile or machine". My wife's grandfather never called it anything else. Every Saturday morning, he would don his overalls and say, "Vell, ich moos dee machine vesha" (Well, I must wash the machine). Does any of this make any sense? What for a fool am I to scribble it! }:-) Fahgesst net; alles fah shposs un' nix fah ungoot (No offense). Richard Emlin Reed Wesley Chapel, FL