> Never mind...your right I doubt that it should matter.
The parentheses in the original *definitely* matter, because by default AND binds more tightly than OR. The larger number of rows in the second query are perfectly plausible given the parenthesis-omission.
That's what I get for second-guessing myself...
To be more precise the behavior shown is exhibited in the following three queries.
SELECT true OR false OR false AND false AND false --> true
SELECT true OR false OR (false AND false AND false) -->true
or, more precisely:
SELECT (true OR false) OR ((false AND false) AND false) -->true
what is thus needed is:
SELECT (true OR false OR false) AND false AND false --> false
which is treated like
SELECT (((true OR false) OR false) AND false) AND false --> false
