OT- javascript question removing style settings

[Don Russell]

I'm running out of technical resources... I can't find an answer on 
google, and my O'Reilley's JavaScript book doesn't have the answer 
either... :-(

I can set a background color of an element like this:

this.style.backgroundColor='red';

but how can I *remove* that style? Obviously I can change it to a 
different color, I want to actually remove the style setting altogether.

this.style.removeProperty('backgroundColor');

did not have the desired effect... no change, but no javascript error in 
the javascript console either (firefox 1.0.7)

Any ideas on how to *remove" a style setting... or is there a "special" 
color like transparent?

this.style.backgroundColor='transparent';

Thanks for any ideas....

Don Russell