*crossly* fine! on top of being labelled mean and lazy for stealing tea, i am falsely accused of malapropism, to wit, of using snipe when i mean snitch, which i most certainly do not. *glare* snipe, in the way of ebay sniping, not long-legged prairie birds, or wherever snipes live, so there. (it's not prairie is it? marshes? the prairie part was from "prairie hens") anyway i rarely use snitch for pinch, i use, errm, pinch, as in the punch poach pinched. snitch i reserve for squealing, or tattling. very occasionally i sneak transitively, but only in the past tenses, like "snuck" (sneak snuck snuck). and anyway nohrnberg himself used the analogy of ebay sniping to refer to macbeth, having everything in hand and then having it snatched away. if that's not good authority i don't know what is.