re: Actually, a better Yeti response would be:
"At first I was nonplussed by your statements"
Indeed. I suspose you would be 'nonplussed' by the truth, which explains:
"Then I paraphrased them to see what you were really driving at."
Which actualy illustrates my point elegantly: For you, the world is what you make of it. Some sort of ideologically driven word game, with little connection to empirical fact. Thank you for doing the leg-work for me.
"will drop in now and again to see how your progress is coming"
By all means, you do that Techie.