>Why not just put the validation code in the SetMyProp() method and lose the ASSIGN?

Roi,

1) because, at this point, I am testing to see the idiosyncracies of _access and _assign methods
2) because when I actually implement this - the SetMyProp() method may not be the only thing that can change the value - I don't know - so I'm looking to code it at the lowest level. I also may end up doing it as you suggested.

thanks,
Ken