Good eye. I didn't include it because the CGI::Maypole example didn't bother with it either. It was my understanding that since I was only dealing with a single table -- and had not configured any relationships -- it shouldn't be neccessary. I tried adding it back in which no change to the error.

I think Corion has given me a good pointer to the source of the problem, now i just have to follow that pointer and see where it leads.