What was happening was, I was using __PACKAGE__->log instead of $me->log to log when there was a locking problem -- which is of course intermittent and random -- and as the ->log method uses properties of the passed instance variable in determining the name of the file to log to, it failed (as designed.) Score: David's carelessness when hacking late at night: 1 David's prudent use of HCF on minor errors to expose deeper problems: 1 Conclusion: risk mitigation strategy effective. I trust the library got their cable back. I'm curious as to if it got deployed any after I left. --dln -- "Lay off that whiskey, and let that cocaine be!" -- Johnny Cash