basically, the daemon hangs right at the start of the request. My very first

use IO::File;
open LOG, ">>log.out" or die "opening log.out: $!\n";
LOG->autoflush(1);
printf LOG "PROC $$: %d %s run starts %s\n",
   time, __FILE__, scalar(localtime);
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for the second request (remember, it is sent while the first program is running) does NOT APPEAR UNTIL THE FIRST REQUEST HAS FINISHED!!!!

Have you tried closing STDOUT on the child process as I suggested above? The STDOUT of the child process is connected to the socket back to the applet. I think the applet is waiting for the socket to close. The second request doesn't even get sent from the applet until the child process finishes executing. If you close STDOUT, I think all will be fine.