My dictionary (American Heritage, 2nd College Edition, 1985) draws a distinction between the transitive and intransitive forms of the verb "believe." The transitive form, taking a direct object, means "to accept as true or real; to credit with veracity." As in "I believe that Diane writes wonderful posts." I have a great deal of evidence to support that claim. The instransitive form, without a direct object, means "to have faith, esp. religious faith; to have faith or confidence; trust." As in "I believe in Diane's generosity." I have no direct evidence of this, and must take it on faith. ;-) Gene "Does anal-retentive have a hyphen?" Dillenburg ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).