Thanks for the reply.
YES on your statements #1 (20 years at C++ taught me that) & #2.
#3: "ASP and JavaScript are (not) interchangeable": I never thought that they were interchangeable, just similar. In the example that I supplied, the syntax is acceptable in both locations, but a function defined withing <script> </script> is not callable within <% %>. That is the issue.
I stumble upon this anmomoly when I was using the syntax '... src= "..." ' as an "include" statement within <script> </script>. I have recently seen in the literature the syntax "#include" for ASP code. I'm looking into that now.
(p.s. If you were to view my profile, you might want to modify you moniker to "GrumpyNotSoOldMan" 