I have resumed my "optimizations"... -- pessimizations if you actually 
clock the code... (I have my reasons).

I noticed that the object format appears to be a 1 word header with 
about 33 fields packed into 32 bits followed by the text of the object...

I know it is common CS practice to point to the beginning of any given 
data object...

Since, I presume, the most interesting computations involve the text of 
the object, wouldn't it, on balance, be better to point to the _middle_ 
of the object and skip adding BaseHeaderSize to everything?

By the way, Is there anything screwy going on with small integers that 
causes negative values to be a different object type or something? It 
would be damn convenient if I could just ignore the sign bit when it 
suits my purpose..