harassment Harassment? ... you want to know about harassment? When I purchased this house, I was working 3,000 hours per year in a '9 to 5 job' for what is now a big five accounting firm. In that job, going to work and returning home were usually on different days. Because of the character of one unavoidable local two lane double center line road (bad) as well as the driving skills of many other drivers (very bad), I drove and still drive that road at the posted speed limit. The first 3 years I here (1992 to 1994), I experienced at least 6 bogus, late night traffic checks. Here are some of the brilliant statements I heard after pulling off the road, and coming to a full stop in order to allow traffic to pass me ... Almost all of them started with this lie, "The reason I pulled you over ..." -- how can a cop pull me over after I stop? Can that procedure be retroactive? "The reason I pulled you over is that you jerked the wheel" That one must have thought he was a dance instructor. How about, after passing a full roadside sobriety test, "I know that I can't prove it, but I still think you're drunk." Had that gone to court, what would he have said in his sworn testimony? In one instance, the last two questions of the roadside sobriety test were "Recite the numbers from 87 to 43 by 2's." He closed his investigation by requesting that I, "Recite the alphabet beginning with 'Z'." On that last one, I was tempted to ask, "Is it true that the alphabet is printed on the back of the Miranda card for your reference? ... Should I wait for you to get it out so you'll be able to check my response?" I didn't say that, because I realized my witty remark would have zero humor value at that time and place, but would have more value later in less hostile settings (such as this one). In one instance, the passenger was asked, "Are there any drugs in the car?" The answer, "no" got his response, "I didn't hear you." When she replied, "NO, there are NO drugs in this car. I am a school teacher, and I don't do any drugs!" To that, he responded, "You don't have to get hostile." "The reason I pulled you over is because your speed was erratic." The driver responded, "I knew you were behind me ... do you think I would be speeding?" The officer responded with "You don't have to obey the yello___" He caught himself as he was about to say "yellow signs" when he realized that might not be the right answer either. In one instance, the driver could not reach her purse on the back seat in order to produce the requested documents because of existing spine and neck injuries. I offered to move the purse. He stopped his requests (stopped talking) before I got out of the car to get them. After running her license and returning her paperwork, he looked at me and said, "You know, when you got out of the car, I could have shot you." That is true, he could have shot me ... except for the fact that he gave me implicit permission before I moved. No, 10 minutes later, that was actually a death threat ... for doing what he asked. Maybe he was angry over wasting 30 minutes, as well as not earning extra vacation days for a DUI citation that he couldn't issue. None of these incidents -- not a single one --- ever resulted in a traffic citation. And now ... day or night, I never stop to let any car pass. No more traffic checks. Before that, I had never realized that showing curtsey to another driver was a heinous, deviant, suspicious act. MGD