In lieu of an update, Chromatic nailed it. D'oh!

In addition, arturo, no offense taken. (I'm an adult; I can take it. {grin}) You're right; I *should* have checked my inputs on the sub before posting. That would have revealed that goodDir() wasn't getting the data I thought it was.

Interesting trick, BTW, one I'll be meditating on throughout the week.

Mea culpa and I promise to reread Chapter 8 in "Learning Perl" and p111-121 in "Programming Perl."

(Memo to self: Buy extra copies for home so I don't have to remember to shlep them between the office and home each night/morning.)

Thanks for the help, folks...

--f