wow, you all got back to me quick! Thanks for the help, every comment was useful and I learned a few things in addition to getting the fix I needed.

notes:

contents were quickly coded under sleep deprivation, but the work here is nearly pressureless :)

I haven't programmed in perl since ... maybe 1999? Since then I have to admit I've fallen in love with C#. But C# is useless in an Apple environment

certainly a rewrite makes sense, but why reinvent the wheel? I just piecemealed what was here. thank you everyone! This is an active community :)