------------- Miles Reid, in his _Undergraduate Algebraic Geometry_ tells with evident horror that: I actually know of a thesis on the arithmetic of cubic surfaces that was initially not considered because 'the natural context for the construction is over a general locally Noetherian ringed topos'. This is not a joke. p.116 Now, I know little about the arithmetic of surfaces. I do know that classical cubic surfaces are pretty well understood at least in some ways. Are there substantial open questions about their arithmetic? Basically my question is just what is the point here? Is Reid objecting that arithmetic of cubic surfaces is already so hard in the classical case that it is crazy to look at a more general one? Or is he saying it is so easy that it is crazy to make it hard by bringing in toposes? Any help on this will be much appreciated. Colin McLarty +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++