First off, I owe RGR'us an apology because I responded while still frustrated.  Parameters are, like, the first thing I checked, but my response to you was inappropriate.  Sorry.  =(

The...

You know what?  I was going to reply to that but I think I'll just skip it.  Thanks.

Thanks to all for the feedback.  It confirmed what I thought about these tables.  Now if only I could convince people at my company about the problem...  =)

Relax, it's not about censorship or free speech.  It's about the value of a 500 word article that's not really bringing up any point that's particularly earth-shattering, not to mention...

I too worked with a product that used generic lookup tables.  It actually spread the lookups between multiple tables so you had to join up three tables to get to...

heh, check this... I work for a company where the DBA refuses to use Primary Keys.  They're apparently the tool of the devil because they make the database difficult to...