can anyone tell me why this is jumping me into the 'terms of endearment' thread
half way through??!?

yes, this happens with old threads (and this is quite an old thread) once you reach the limit of your posts/page preference.

Edit Profile/Display Preferences and look for this:
Total posts to show on one page when viewing a thread in flat mode (default is 10)
set it for something like 100
THIS WAS THE BASIS FOR TRYING TO LIMIT THREADS TO 100 posts, to minimize the effects of this "feature".