thx to all for the support
hellsatan: you are correct, i could have...but i prefer not to use the PHP include unless there is a good reason. My site averages about 200-340 users online at any given time, and despite being on a colocated server, we are seriously in need of a server upgrade, and i have to really watch resources.
Using phpinclude means that the entire phpinclude is loaded into every page, according to my understanding.
Also according to my understanding, routines put into the global.php file are not accessed EVERY time a page loads....but only when they are called.
by all means feel free to correct me if i am wrong on this one.