Since I received no replies, on or off list (no surprise, I usually don't),
to my question I might as well say that I figured it out myself; might have
spotted the problem earlier had I not been working when I should have been
asleep.

On Sat, 3 Aug 2002, Winship wrote:

> In archive searching via email this argument ought, I think, to require
> a hit on BOTH (implied, need not be stated) the phrase 'series title' and
> 'subseries title'.  However, it seems to be ignoring the first argument,
> 'series title'.
>   -------------------------------------
> s 'series title' & 'subseries title' in autocat from 98/1/1
> -> 1 match.
>
> >>> Item #69037 (3 May 2000 08:43) - Re: OECD economic surveys - 130 or 245?
>
> 6)  Serial section title or subseries title with initial article.
>                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>    ------------------------------------

The problem is here:
s 'series title' & 'subseries title' in autocat from 98/1/1
  ^
  ^
That ought to be:
s ' series title' & 'subseries title' in autocat from 98/1/1

There reason the match was indicated only for 'subseries title' is that
'series title' is contained within 'subseries title'.  ' series title'
is * not * contained within 'subseries title'  and is what I should have
used.  In case you don't spot the distinction:
'series title'
' series title'
which prevents the two terms from being interpreted as the same thing.

So that is taken care of.  Now I've a question about searching in 1.8e
lists (AUTOCAT is still 1.8d), via email, but I'll save it for another
item.     Douglas Winship  [log in to unmask]