The ice cream story was a direct "show" from a cartoon. With a total economy of words, I was making the point that the irony was in the one sentence, My point was on the economy of "showing." I write non-fiction. If the piece is short, I may use "tags." However in longer pieces, I usually let dialog alone do the primary work of showing, interspersed with action. When I do the spoken form of my writing, I would not weigh it down with qualifying tags. Thanks for your input. martha