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Gentelmen, I fear that we have all fallen quite short of the mark in this regard and assign to us all a mark of ZERO in this regard. I for one, see nothing good humored or playful in this dance of domination and destruction in which we all whirl about the floor with such aloof superiority.

However I say, however indeed! All is NOT lost. There exists another form of this word, and one which fits this motley crew I now address with such familiarity as to be a second skin.

You Sirrah, yes, you, the gentleman from RTT, are you still with us? WAKE UP man! ....... Bother. Sir, if you would be so kind as to adjust your crystaline bulk as to crush his toe...yes, just like that....yes, yes, sometime in the next hour or so would be just grand, what? Ah, yes, yes, I understand, refreshments will be brought to you presently, I certainly recognize the extreme effort this rapid pace requires of you. Yes....what....I, yes, yes, I see....thank you again, yes, a transcript will be provided for you.

As I was saying, well, as the shiny gentelman - again, loosly, ... no Sir, no offence meant - has noted, we sidestep one aspect of banter by having these scribes eternally following us around to record for posterrity every obsurd utterance we make, thus making a mockery of banter in its own right.

However INDEED! Yes, we DO banter. Not as the physical thing, but as the ACTION. To Banter. This implies action. We are all here as men of action.

Let us examine what it is To...I, what? Yes, again that was loosly used my furry friend, I ...beg pardon? Well, yes, I meant that in a rhetorical sense, I'll get back to you about that scout soon enough I .. what?, yes, self defense...the ship had no weapons Sirrah, and I...later Sirrah, later...My shiny observer, might I impress upon your services again? Nothing much, just there, to your left, yes, the scally pinkish bit, yes...on that...trod heavily if you would

at this moment all discourse stops as shrill sqeals of pain errupt from the small statured yet apparently large lunged Rhodenian embassidor's tail is crushed beneath a large shiny crystaline ambassador from someplace else...the piercing squeals continue unitl the ambassador from RTT reawakens and thinking that he is addressing a malfunctioning alarm clock of his company's manufacture delivers a sound thump upon the Rhodenian ambassador's small head. The services of the Crystaline ambassedor no longer being required he again assumes a less energenic stance while the refreshments mentioned earlier are infact delivered. The speaker continues as if uninterrupted

Thank you so much...To Banter Well, I suppose that I have been doing a bit of that just now haven't I? Yes, well, real time demonstration - free of charge of course - the example helps to get the point across, does it not?

To Banter: - In the sense that we partake of it here may be understood as - To jest about; to ridicule in speaking of, as some trait, habit, characteristic, and the like.

Alternatively, To Banter: To delude or trick, -- esp. by way of jest.

Yes, I do believe that we are homing in on the mark just here.

Lastly, To Banter: To challenge or defy to a match.

And so my fellow practitioners of the art, we have it here. We defy one another into some sort of action by ridiculing each other.

And so it is with this in mind that I would rank us in the following manner. "Borrowing" - as is our way - from the previous gentelman, and by the by sir, I understand that there is a rather large contingent of deligates who would like to have a moment of your time, it seems that they disproved of your mistaking The Most Legendary Leader of Rhodenia of All Time for an example of one of your finest chronometric devices and wish to each in their turn express these feellings to you. No, no, no reason to be alarmed, ther are only a million or so of them, waiting most patiently - said that they had plenty of pie and cheese and for you to take your time. What's that now? Yes, I would be happy to continue at length.

As I was saying, The Ranking:

In the first rank, I and my advisory committee have placed:

Doc Devious - but only if he is able to remain focused long enough to receive the award. Although we find his words wanting in meat - lacking the fortitude to last out even a meager cup of tea - we can appreciate the fine mind and imagination behind them.

Mattrixx - although he has been unnervingly quiet of late - perhaps his nannites found a more desireable target in his tounge -We appreciate his skill at igniting outrage and controversy simply by addressing a topic. Perhaps it is simply that we enjoy baiting his response to such a degree. I was certainly questioning the advice of my committee in light of my personal habbit of poking him sharply in the ribs at every opportunity however, the decided ranking has been echoed by others before us here and so we will stay with it.

To the Lowest ranking we assign:

Grand Admiral THRAWN - this is not through his ability or style, simply put, we have so little material on which to base a judgement. Here we have seen a different sort of Grand Admiral, and we have to say that what we have seen we find most interresting. We would like to see more.

Golgatha and Capt. Bloodaxe we find also fall into this catagory. What we have read is entertaining, but we would like to read more of it.

To the middle rank we assign those of you assembled here who have not been named specifically. You would all seem to have the capacity to produce volumes of diatribe against the rest of us, yet you hold back. Why? Let loose the slings and arrows of your soul and mind! Present here the words which must pass from your mouths in anguish, disgust, or triumph on a regular basis! Do Not spare our sensitive nature! Nay, Be BOLD! All in the highest levels of taste, grace, and social acceptance of course.

As an aside, take it upon yourselves to educate those of us here who are less capable, feel free to use phrases in your native tounge - again, for those of you who lack a tounge, or any vestigial evidence of one, please accept the analogy as it stands - so that we may broaden our knowledge beyond the Blue Event Horizon. I again appologize to those who must rely on an even less perfect grasp of my particular language than I have when trying to understand these words I throw at you so carelessly - would someone again waken the ambassador from RTT? I must protest to thier corporate officers the hours they force their executives to work, clearly they are asleep at the switch. Perhaps if we sent over a few advisors?

Should any of you here in this auditorium feel in anyway slighted by these rankings, please make comment in the public forum where others may help in your, or our, understanding, we of course will have destroyed the trasncript to prevent it being used in any defamation of character litigation against us.