i'm delighted to report that the car has magically fixed itself. on the advice of the newbug list, i had someone come over to work the gears while i looked at the linkage with a flashlight. nothing down in there-- and ray had no trouble shifting. i tried it; no trouble. drove to the mall and back; no trouble.

hope it stays that way. maybe something got down in there but was knocked out by the bouncy entry into my driveway, or my final two-handed push into first to get it INTO the driveway.