All Comments on 'Cowboy Up'

I thought he fell for Christine's bullshit hook, line and sinker. She's lying to him and dating another guy at the same time? That should have been the end for him right then and there given his history. But he cowboyed up and soldiered on. Big mistake. Should have listened to his gut, taken out a gun and shot the damn cowboy! And how stupid was Christine that she was screwing Jeff in their bed? Both a good ending and a sad ending. Good that he dumped the slut before they got married. Bad that he feels he has to stay single the rest of his life. I hope he sent a bouquet of flowers to Christine's Mom and a note thanking her for stopping him from marrying her slut daughter! Another good one Bob. Keep them coming.

It means never having to say, or at least mean, you are sorry.

The closest most women come is 'you were woefully ignorant about how I felt about these trifiling matters, which is the only IMPORTANT way to see things, but I will graciously forgive your flawed understanding.'

Not all women. But that flaw seems pretty common.

Hard luck Hannigan didn't have nothing on this guy .

Always great to have you post new stories .

wow, that was depressing. It's like a glimpse into my own life, except for the lack of money for hookers.

I was hoping he would "cowboy up" and dump the bitch as soon as he found out she had lied to him in order to go out with some other guy, and even bailed on him early just to sell the lie. With his history, it made no sense why that wasn't a bigger deal to him when he found out. It might have served him better to, I don't know, try dating someone for at least a year before getting engaged to them. Instead he seems to have sworn off relationships, which might not be a bad idea, considering his judgment. Still, call me a hopeless romantic, but I think there might be a Pauline French out there waiting for him.

Thanks for the story.

Cog

Fun ironic twist after a good setup. Kinda like a slasher movie where the protagonists survive to the very end, and eat it right as the final credits roll. Thanks. Entertaining and clever, but doesn't say much for the female of our species. Left me with a smile though. *****

. . . when I was thinking, ‘This just doesn’t seem right,’ as I was anticipating a happily married ending. Still, the I caught her screwing someone else in our bed trope is a very familiar one in LW, and I’m always asking myself, who does that?

Depressing story.

Christine was dating another guy at the same time she was seeing Dave and lied to him about it. That alone should have meant never even considering getting married to her. Sex after three dates is almost the rule nowadays, so the slut was undoubtedly fucking them both at that point.

It was good he dodged a bullet by catching her cheating before the marriage, but deciding to give up on relationships forever was a sad ending.

What was going on with this guy?

Did he have a gypsy curse?

I liked it 5* worth.

And he scores, the crowd goes wild.

"I had to lie about it. I just knew how you would take it if I told you I was going out with another guy right after we had made love." – That's bull shit! As she says, they weren't exclusive, all she had to say was that she had another date and he had already bought tickets!

@johntcolksey Re: "Score one for the misogynists" – Where do you see misogynism here?

"Last fling" - Isn't that like the "last hurrah" excuse that his fiancee Sarah used?

She knew the history, knew the reaction, begged for another chance, got it, and still pulled that crap?! Bitches and hos, amIright?

It is ludicrous no make that absurd that this guy should have married Christine after all the trouble they had before they got engaged. Maybe that is why all those other women cheated on him.... he is stupid

1st the fact that hes hyper sensitive about his past relationships and has

develop a serious inferiority complex about this bedroom skills. Whether or not his perception of his own bedroom skills is accurate is not the point. He thinks he is li acting and as a result anything that transpires in the relationship this guy is going to see thru the lenses of his bedroom skills. That is a big mountain to climb for anybody man or woman in a relationship

2nd problem is that Christine lies about several minor things which don't deserve to be lied about. OK so she didn't want to tell rob about Dating this other guy she already had commitments to. I understand her reasoning. But chrstine after knowing his full story should of known or seen that ...being up front with him was the ONLY way to go. How could she think ..."yeah another lie would work"... But lying about working on an audit? Why is that necessary for her to do?

Back story too long.

listen to your gut and act accordingly, TK U MLJ LV NV

That's a very sad ending.

Would be nice to add a chapter with a happier ending for the guy.

... women are either prostitutes or cheating bitches. That is one fucked-up world.

you never know how its going to end

Interesting, easy to read, reasonably satisfying ending. Loved it!

JPB, I was about to rip your story up, stating this marriage would never last for this and that reasons. You gave us the very slight hints hoping some of us could put 2+2 together. You pulled it out at the end - damn good writing. Skillfully done, salute to a Master-of-the-quill ! 6*

Nice guy only ,meetsq women who kick him in the ass. The odds of that happening have to be millions to one. .why did you make this Chris women into a slut at the end. After all she understood and loved him. Why would she have a last fling like you wrote her? It just seems to out of place and to far fetched. Now you have him trusting no women. And I know lots of fine women are out there.your ending killed this story for me. Marriage and children would have been a better ending!

,

IMHO not quite up to your usual standards. No real drama. I do appreciate you posting though, thanks.

He just couldn't pick 'em.

And, considering your self reported history, a bit sad...

As a story, I'd say that making Christine more sympathetic might have helped - I got the feeling of a cipher/mystery fairly early on. The denouement for the protagonist left him a victim... not a very strong resolution, and tends to feed the feelings of victim-hood in the reader, to no ones' benefit. Perhaps making more of the relationship between the working women and the protagonist, doing a bit of a satire on the "harem" resolution?

The twist was quite quick, to my read (a bit choppy I'm afraid - I was having a hard time keeping focus), and I didn't catch enough of the foreshadowing... but that may have been my problem, since by the end I was disconnected from the story.

Perhaps a not very helpful review... condolences if this story was motivated by RL.

Green-something

Bob writes another! I enjoyed the story very much. You always have such interesting characters. Thank you for writing this one. More, please. Randi

Didn't they do a survey a few years ago about women and where they cheat?

The vast majority think it is unthinkable to cheat in her husbands bed. That is a stab in the back too far for most women.

But it makes the trope of 'outfitted the bedroom for video and sound' much easier.

MOST cheating has an ambiguity to it. Did it or didn't it happen? Which makes reconciliation easier because of that 10%, 20, 50% of doubt. But it's hard to argue with an HD streaming video, which somehow always magically gets a great image of the juice covered Peg D inserting into the Slot C.

A saddle-sore cowboy, sick of all that ropin' and brandin' effort, only to see the pesky rustlers ride off with the filly.

and dodged a huge bullet before the marriage. He went MGTOW. Hypergamy sucks nowadays ladies. Straighten up and fly right or you will reap what you sow, the whirlwind.

Maybe they were "modern women" who think screwing around is OK?

In saying score one for the misogynists, I was pointing out that, in this story, every woman was a duplicitous cheater or a prostitute, and, in the end, he decided no woman was worth having contact with, except the prostitutes, who, after all are ultimately just there to be used for sex. Not a very hopeful image of the fairer half of our species. I still liked the story though.

Fine tale of courting woe! Now if Pauline French was near our hero, he'd be set for life!

I expected the ending before I was halfway through the story

the very end. Then it dropped dramatically. Why would you end it like that? Do you have something against living happily ever after? It was so abrupt it didn't even make sense. It was too far from out of the blue. 2 stars.

Nuff said!

I liked it,not a romantic ending, but def a different take on things.

it fell off a cliff at the end.

He finally figured out his own limitations. He was a dumb shit when it came to discerning the true character of a woman. He's better off with part time whores .

Fun and entertaining. Glad you made it easy.

JPB is never happier than when he's unhappy, if you follow my meaning.

Damn, another one of those last second redirects. Didn’t seem in character for Chris to do something so stupid, but that’s part for the course with these kinds of stories. Not on my top list of JPB stories (and there are a bunch that are).

I liked the story, but I don't buy her absolute obsession with landing him, knowing his extreme past, and still ends up cheating on him a week after getting engaged. I know it's just a story, but seems to me that a woman that was cheated on previously, got hit with the Martian Slut Ray.

It really seemed completely out of character for the way you built Christine, especially with his history of women, she knowing about it and her pushing for a fast wedding.

It just didn't seem realistic to her character and it was also extremely anti-climatic.

It's like you decided at the last minute you didn't want a happy ending for them and decided having her cheat on him was the best course but you didn't add any real context to it.

You gave us no hint in her character that she would even be or act like this and the whole marriage thing seemed overly rushed as his character didn't seem to really have the "I'm in love with this woman and can't live without her" vibe to make him rush into a marriage. You could have added so much more to it using her roommates, the secretary he used work with, etc.

Sorry, it made a decent story into a "No Go". As a reader and somewhat fan, I really feel a bit disrespected with the ending and its context.

"Her dating others while she was dating me and her fucking Jeff while wearing my ring told me just what kind of woman she was and would most likely continue to be" - While I agree with his ultimate decision, I disagree with the first part of this sentence. While she was wrong not to tell him the truth, they WEREN'T dating when she made the date with the other guy. As far as what we were told, she didn't date others while they were dating, though one can wonder if her time Jeff was a one off!

@johntcooksey Re: misogynist, one more time - Her roommates were portrayed positively, unless you have an issue with lesbianism. As for "prostitutes," actually they were escorts, not prostitutes. They were strong women who knew themselves and what they wanted/expected from life, not a misogynist portrayal, IMHO.

I’ve read all the comments, this is my first JPB read. Apparently JPB is quite the author, I will give him(her?) credit for that. I am a hopeless romantic, and having just gone through a horrendous divorce not because of sexual infidelity, all this did was piss me off. Will I read another JPB story? No. But then, you get what you pay for.

How did he make regional manager when he is such a bad judge of character?

wasnt the date with some other guy, it was the LIE.

Bob writes a good story, but missed it there.

She lied, about a date with another guy. If it really meant nothing, just a casual date, why lie? He should have left it alone then. The fucking Jeff scene is all his fault, not hers. She lied. He caught her. That shpuld have been the end. Happy alone for the rest of his life or buying time with Lois or finding someone to share his life with is beside the point.

She lied.

'Seems like a whole lot of people got majorly bummed down by how this tale turned out, which, honestly, makes me want to ask two questions:

"How could you NOT see it coming?" I never actually believe that those two would ended up together, especially given Dave's history, but that became crystal clear when the author spend so much time, in the third act, setting up how happy he was in their relationship. I actually said out loud, while laughing, "he probably divorced now!" when Dave told Chris he was thinking about getting her a ring. I don't know, maybe it is because it is not even close to be my first rodeo with this author, but the red herrings couldn't have been more obvious that the MC wasn't going to walk off into the sunset with his supposed main chick. Which brings me to my second questions...

"Why are you so unhappy about him dodging yet another bullet!?" Say whatever you want about Dave, about his lack of discernment when it comes to females (dude is obviously mostly attracted to sluts), but the fact he managed to not get himself hitch to none of them is a true accomplishment, in and of itself. Usually, JPB's poor saps get not only emotionally destroyed by the round-heeled skanks they hook up with, but also financially so. Not sure why exactly he decided to spare Dave all the drama of going through the time tested 'dissolution checklist', but it certainly is a welcome and happy change to the norm. Fact is, the only thing that truly surprise me, about the ending, was Dave catching Chris cheating BEFORE their wedding. As I said before, in real life just like in fiction, such luck rarely happens. So don't be glum about the MC ending up picking up yet another loser - be happy that he didn't have to pay a dime making any of those losers' life more comfortable! Rejoice in Dave being a fantastic bad-relation dodger! 'Cause most of us aren't!

I've read a lot of commenters stating that Chris' actions at the end made no sense, was out of character...but let's be honest here: it's not, because she is a known liar. The audit lie, more than dating another guy while being with Dave, was more telling about who she is than pretty much everything else - if there's one thing the man made it very clear, when he told her about all his previous breakups, is that he valued honestly and loyalty above all else - even sexual compatibility! For her to come up with such a lie, when coming up straight about them not saying anything about being exclusive... No, not good, even if you add all his relationship issues. Honestly, from the little we learn about Christine, I didn't like her one bit - the way she poisoned her lesbian friends against Dave, her constant lying and the aggressive way she came about when they started talking about marriage... Seriously, what did actually happened in her first marriage? Yeah-yeah - she supposedly caught her husband with her best friend... But what exactly happened to make this happen? Would it be so far-fetched to believe that Chris was, even then, less than faithful? That, in the face of all of her affairs, her spouse found comfort with her BFF, who was also quite unhappy with her actions? And that those two ended up falling in love with each other, something the wayward wife never saw coming? See, this is why it's never a completely bad idea to have a background check made about her woman or a man you're seriously dating, but who was previously married - seriously, the couple of hundreds you may end up paying for it would be so much worth it, compare to all the heart/headaches you may end up with...

Yep, it sure is a pro-MGTOW story! I've noticed that, in his last stories, JPB was done even acknowledging that forgiveness towards cheaters was an option. Back in the day, Dave, as a character, would have probably grovel to one of this exes - hell, he would have been married to one while she was fucking up a storm and carrying some douchebag's baby! As I said before, this could have been way worse (if you genuinely think this story was depressing, you should NOT read "The Building of Robert G. Holbrook" - freaking story would give you a mental breakdown!), so looking at Dave, walking away from it somewhat whole, makes me happy. If anything, the man may end up getting married for the RIGHT reason: not because he's in love, but to built up on his wealth - you know, the actual reason why marriage contracts were created in the first place! That would be a nice sequel...

In any case, this was a good Bob. I only wish it had more character development, especially for the women in it, but, all and all, very little to complain about this one. ★★★★

Were the roommates portrayed positively? They accosted him, physically attacked him, never apologised to him, and as Christine's roommates, certainly accepted her cheating. Man haters? Whether they're lesbians or not, as women, they seem to protect her boorish behavior while punishing him for their misperceptions. As for escorts who extend their job description to include prostitution? Semantics IMHO.

I've been a fan of JPB for years (and sbrooks103x also, for that matter), and wouldn't characterize him as a misogynist at all, but in this (well written and entertaining) story, none of the women are redeemable in the end.

What are the odds that Dave will ever find a suitable wife? Pretty slim with his record going back to his childhood, could there be something wrong with Dave? Chris's actions with Jeff don't follow the character you built up for her where she is looking for a long term mate but, did extend the long line of Dave's ex's.

I have read almost all of Bob's LW stories and I wasn't surprised at all with the ending. With Bob it could not be a straight up happy ending. Ending notwithstanding, it was as well written as all JPB's stories are.

In the old days before the technology we have now to get the range right they would shoot the cannon a bit further, then a bit closer to see what height level they should point the cannon to get the right range.

Finding a mate is pretty much like that for the most part. If every woman you date, like the protaganist in this story, is cheating on you and/or dumping you then you probably need to lower your sights a bit.

I had a somewhat good friend right after college who was a really good looking guy, tall, who eventually got a good professional job after college. In college he used to date some really attractive women who all seemed to dump him after a while. I never thought much of it because I used to go through a lot of women back then myself so I figured he was just moving on to different women (didn't know he was the one getting left).

While we were still in college one day I was laughing telling him about what I heard on the radio about women calling in and saying they needed a big cock and a small cock wouldn't do. He got all serious and he said that he was actually small. My first reaction was that he was fucking with me, but when he stayed serious and quiet I told him well as long as you're average sized I'm sure you're fine. He said actually he was pretty sure he was below average. Well, that got me quiet, and talk about awkward.

Anyway, this guy got married to a very nice, but unattractive girl. A virgin. I never asked him if there was a correlation there or not with his lowering his sights as we weren't that close by then, but I've assumed that must have been the case. Although I have learned in life we sometimes make the wrong correlation when we have limited information.

From my experience women want a relationship and monagamy much more than men. So if all your longer term relationships are dumping you and moving on to other guys or cheating on you, then I guess it's either the escorts like the protaganist picked or find a girl low enough on the totem pole that will love having you in her life and ignore whatever the fuck is wrong with you.

No reason to hate women or stay away from them. You just haven't found your proper range yet. Women have to do the same shit too. It's called life.

Most of the time JPB uses "Bob" as his protagonist... this time it is a Dave.... I wonder if pickaxe handles had something to do with that...

And, anything that shines up on "Cowboys" kinda warms my heart, not sure why... perhaps because I haven't done an honest days work in... ever. Or, I have a unease when I see misunderstood archetypes. Your choice.

Anyway, total and complete honesty isn't something people like, especially in relationships. Lost many chances at totally unworkable relationships (and conflicted sexual encounters) by trying to be totally honest.

Just sayin'

Green-something

I really enjoyed the story and the trip up Woodward, should of taken her up on John R.

So it probably wasn’t worth reading.

Mighty Horny has said all that was worth saying. It was in LW; The gal has to cheat.

What happened to the kids?

his use of dialogue is so good. Not sure about the perpetually disillusionment with women!

As you say, they WEREN'T exclusive, but even if they were, all she had to say is, "Honey, I'm sorry, but I already have a date. I'd break it, but he already bought tickets." Any halfway reasonable guy would accept that. If he was REALLY bothered, he could offer to buy the tickets from her date! If the other guy wouldn't sell, then she would have a good excuse to then break the date.

Maybe it’s just me, but isn’t this an erotic story site? It happens a lot in this category. Another story with no sex.

There is nothing erotic about this story.

The ending didn’t fit with the character you developed of Chris.

Had me worried the schmuk would actually marry her. She was a confessed liar and cheat.

Glad you ended it the way it should have done.

I liked this story.

Many positive elements here.

"Cowboy up" is a positive attitude,

even though it may not always work.

JPB not making our hero stupid,

is a positive thing too.

Dave might be unlucky in love

or just making bad decisions

in matters of the heart.

That don't make him stupid.

It only makes him human.

I got a lot of fun reading this story.

Thanks JPB!

Top ratings from me.

Well written...well done!

I ha ha'd you because for once Harry got it right! Our hero was a moron. Just the same I gave the tale a five.

Jedd Clampett (carvohi)

It seems in JPB's world every woman is a cheating slut and the only women worth a man's time are prostitutes. The women JPB presents are all vile beings.

Take Christine.

She KNOWS his history. She goes out of her way to CONVINCE Dave she's on his side. She could have left Dave be. She PUSHED and PUSHED until he is in love with her. She says she's in love with him. She knows about cheaters, first hand. She knows what cheating would do to Dave. She heard the EXACT WORDS she uses to Dave, from Dave when he told her what his exes had done. Yet, she does it to him, too. She can't go ONE WEEK without fucking some other guy?

That means in JPB's world, even the BEST, most HONEST and good-hearted women are lying, cheating, bitches and whores and cannot be faithful NO MATTER WHAT.

In the LW genre, JPB is in the elite category of writers who would get 5 star ratings just by the quality of the bulk of their past work. If their name is on it, you don't even have to read it and know it will be worth 5 stars. Taken against all LW submissions, this was worth 5 stars.

In the JPB universe of stories, IMHO, this was a 4 star story. Better than average but not up to the best of his efforts.

JPB never disappoints.

I liked the interesting plot twist at the end.

Billy Lines

Good story as always, but I have to point out that using larger numbers to describe breast size is inaccurate. If a woman has 34B breasts, her body just under the breasts is 34 inches around. Saying they are 38+ basically describes someone with a barrel chest or who is overweight. You would be better served to say 34H, which is a normal average size under the breasts and an H is 8 inches away from her ribs at the nipple. This is a very big breasted women on a smaller frame.

Wasn’t a fan of the ending but the story along the away was great

This guy only DATED a string of lying, cheating cunts. The divorce courts give the final fuck to the trusting men who married the scheming sluts. Dumb-ass me, I married and was cheated on by two sluts and then ass raped by two divorce courts, according to the fucked up Democrat laws of NYS.

Ok, so he’s had bad experiences with cheating women... but giving up on finding special altogether? What’s the point of working for a living if there’s nobody to share life with? Seems a worthless existence.

I'm realizing all these stories are just a microcosm of JPB's life. It's quite apparent he's never been able to satisfy a woman.

I was enjoying this story then you ruined it. There was nothing - in fact the opposite - to suggest she was slut. The ending ruined what was up to then a good read.

Hell of a twist on the end there JPB. The way the main character's luck with women was rolling, I could see why he decided to throw in the towel and hire only professionals.

The world is a fickled place. With that guy's luck in women he made the right choice.

70% of young men between the ages 20 and 33 are not married nor plan to.

Why? What's the point? Young men have seen the courts fuck over men in divorces for decades and have wised up.

5*****

Pretty sad loser.

... he was probably more unlucky than an actual bad judge of character. After all, Christine fooled Lois, too, and she was a hardened whore. She's likely been around all sorts of characters in her business and is probably difficult to pull one over on. There's some consolation in that. Christine was clearly quite the accomplished lying slut actress.

Not a bad story but still a bit sad. I'm a happy ending kinda guy, even if it's given in the form of a two sentence epilogue, so hearing that he'd sworn off relationships for good is kind of a bummer. Still, it's nice that he stuck to his guns and kicked the slut to the curb (finally).

Some people are just consummate liars and the sooner you learn that the better you are. Good story, although I am hard pressed to find anyone I would want to know.

His life sounds strangely like how mine began. I was getting this feeling of deja vu (thats how they spell Ypsilanti's strip club). Enjoyed the story anyway - thank you.

somewhere east of Omaha

I'll buy this as it also happened to me. If a woman is dating two guys at the same time then most likely all she does is measuring them up against each other and trying to decide. But it could also be that she is just happy with extra attention. That could be benign if you are not in committed relationship but if you are planning marriage that is just not acceptable. Women (and men) do that often but marrying a two-timer is really, really bad idea and the reason is that the "other guy" has all the rights to consider to be the first one, whether it is true or not. Meaning, there is a good chance that he would be making problems down the road.

Also, when you get married you need to discuss previous boyfriends with your wife. Some breaks are clean, some are not and you need to be aware of which ones you need to have extra sense on.

This type of plot is really good for short stories.

Imbeciles starting to live a life. Can they even breathe without screwing up?

Love this one....good counterpoint to the BTB trope. What I particularly love is that there is nothing wrong with the guy...its just that the modern feminazi movement has transformed marriage as a joke... The free love/no consequences hippies got their advanced degrees grew up and took over all sectors of academia, government, and business. The old christian ideal of marriage is not a minority in our society. It has been replaced utterly amoral women who are raised to be utterly and completely selfish sociopaths. Marriage and divorce now is centered around a utterly dominant female and a wimp/submissive cuckold type husband.

The male in this story has tried to retain his base masculinity and find a valid mate who is trustworthy and committed to lifetime monogamous married relationship. After 5 attempts in which he is betrayed by sociopathic modern females right out of the feminazi ideal...he simply gives up. He finally realizes that you simply cannot find this in today's amoral anything goes social matrix...and commits his life to one of serial relationships of friends with benefits. I find this story a rather compelling and bitter condemnation of the utter implosion of the American marriage and American society in general.

5 stars for the structured social/cultural commentary hidden as a btb....

He should kicked Brenda’s and Maria’s asses since they knew that Chris was screwing around behind his back!

Fool me once...shame on you.

Fool me Twice ...Shame on Me..and I'm Stupid.

The thing is we Men get it all wrong.

We try to understand Women.

That's the biggest problem.

And we expect others to be like us.

Life has its way to fuck up with you.

And Bobs mention about Dirty Old Man.

Where women are concerned all men are stupid.Simply called Pussy Whipped.

All we Men want is Pussy.

Too bad for his hopes for a family but I don’t blame him

Brilliant

Jesus, it’s just a cheating story by a mediocre author. It’s not a social commentary, Servant. What a loser. Uncle thinks he’s some manly man

Clever how he made lemonade after all the lemons he had been dealt. Good tale. LP

"No more getting involved with women trying to come up with trying to come up with one I could make the long haul with. It was going to be Lois, Tanya and Marge from now on."

Hiring professional escorts are cheaper in the long run than marriage. You're paying for sex in both cases but marriage these days is too risky of an investment. All it takes is one divorce and you lose 50% or more of you accumulated assets in one blow plus stuck paying alimony for years on end. Since 50% of marriages end in divorce and 80% of those divorces are filed by women the odds for men aren't worth the financial risk. Plus good escort sex is better than marriage sex any day of the week and its available on demand.

expectations!

Sad story, he kept picking the wrong women.

Why does he keep selecting these kind of women? It seems this is what he likes. Maybe subconsciously he is not looking for steady relationship.

Very sad story....

ugh to carry her breasts which I guessed were 38's or 40'😂😂…

That’s a joke right? Breasts are never sized as 38 or 40…. It’s A..b..c..d..dd..ddd etc

LOL

JPB writing about his many failed marriages and the fact he can't keep a woman.

One or two bad experiences with women is a ‘them’ problem. If it’s more than that, it’s a ‘you’ problem. The guy’s a loser

1. You do not marry

2. If you marry, don't do it sooner than a few years into your relationship

3. Look out for red flags and don't ignore them

Chris not only dated another guy at the same time, she also lied about it.

Also, upon his question why she dated the other guy while alredy planning to marry him: oh, I didn't know I loved you and had to have you yet, but I had an epiphany while you ignored me. So she didn't love him, she just had to have what seemed to drift out of reach. And our MC buys into that shit? SMH