folks, the solution to the decidedly weird problem is decidedly un-weird: it turns out that those strange quotes are in fact the last lines on p.184, which for some technical printing reason must have left their mark on that blank page... this is what the person who had asked me found out today, and he is obviously right. which leaves us with two questions, to wit: a. why didnt WE clever mailing list people find out in the first place? b. isnt it about time we ask ourselves why nobody does what i cautiously suggest on my homepage: memorize the whole novel, just like people do in Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451... Bernie _____________________________________________________________ Come to think of it: why not take a(nother) trip to my webpage: THE CATCHER IN THE RYE BY J.D. SALINGER - AND RELATED MATTERS URL: http://mitglied.tripod.de/BerndWahlbrinck/index.htm