by Marc Coyles.
Done! Upgraded from 1.9.8 to 1.9.19 to 2.2.4...
The error from the original post still cropped up - the 1.9.19 upgrade just brought to light a few more issues... but anyways, the SOLUTION to the issue in the original post can be found at the end of this thread o'er yonder: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=165686