heh. you've your work cut out for you if you're going to call out all the attempts at humor around here. i just hope i didn't hurt your feelings. if you tap your crocs to ted nugent in your pt cruiser while playing with your toothbrush moustache dreaming of threadless stems, carry on. and while i may find it 'ugly' and 'repugnant' (your words describing such stems), that's your business. i did find the title of your post to be a wonderful lead-in to additional 'least ugly' of our overtly unattractive consumer choices. how could one refuse? so i gave mine. next time, i'll try to be more 'helpful, insightful' like all your other posts on this forum, regardless of their readability. oh, and if it means anything to you, i think you're on to something concerning these stems and the modern bicycle esthetic: ugly. repugnant, even.