... I will give it to the first person who makes a post on this BB after the start of the new year.

KEEP IN MIND: the New Year starts at 12:00:01 am in the first time zone (whatever it's called) WEST of the International Date Line, so NOT necessarily 12:00:01 wherever you happen to be (unless, of course, you're floating around the middle of the Pacific Ocean) and NOT 12:00:01 am CST (ChipBoard Standard Time).

Anyone who posts a message welcoming, observing or otherwise even MENTIONING the supposed new "millennium" will be arbitrarily disqualified from winning this chip and it will be awarded to the next earliest post. <g> The chip will also NOT be a "millennium" chip of any kind!

BTW, never did answer you JB, when you asked "what is a FREE chip?" I hope this won't start another long, contentious thread <g>, but a "free" chip is any chip for which there is no charge to obtain it. Which, in my opinion, would also make it pretty "rare"!!

Your question did give me pause, however, and made me realize that I had committed a grammatical faux pas in my previous offer -- I offered to "give" a "free" chip to anyone who could provide the requested explanation. The offer, of course, was redundant; if I was "giving" the chip away, it was obviously "free".

So far, NO ONE has even tried to provide an answer to the question I posed. Presumably, unless we are all going to swear off the chipboard forever, SOMEONE will make the first post of the new year to win the one offered here.

Anyone want to make a side bet on whether the first post of the new year will be by Gene Trimble? <g> ----- jim o\-S