Question: For example, I have a method `showTable` that takes a JQuery object, and the `showTable` call is a parameter for the `append` method of that same object.

This is the result I'm going for:

```
body.append (this.showTable(body));

```

`showTable` returns an HTML string to append to `body`. But I don't like typing `body` twice, it feels clunky. How do make it implicit that `body` is the variable to be passed?

Answer: 
You can use the [.append( function(index, html) )](http://api.jquery.com/append/#append-functionindex--html) variant here

```
body.append (this.showTable);

```

then inside

```
function showTable(){
    //here this points to the body element
}

```
Let's start by rewriting it in fluent style:

```
this.showTable(body).appendTo(body)

```

But that doesn't really answer the question. I think it looks better.

To answer the question, I would write a helper function:

```
jQuery.fn.extend({
    appendTableTo: function(thing) { return this.showTable(thing).appendTo(thing) }
});
this.appendTableTo(body);

```