>  JV> Nope, little endian. AX = AL AH
> 
> The confusion which arises in this regard constantly amazes me. 
You're right, that was confusing. My point was that if Chris stores a 
word (or larger) then he needs to realize that it is actually stored 
in reverse of how it appears in his code. The variable is a pointer 
to the beginning of the (backwards) data itself. On the other hand I 
noticed there was a typo in his question (confusing 0102Fh with 0102h). 
Whatever it was I'm certain he has a handle on it by now...  :-)
Consider:
    some_text DW "atwhis isth"
 
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