readline() blocks after select() says there's data??

[wealthychef]

> Rich, I thought Grant identified your real problem (calling select
> wrong) in his first followup.  I added some comments relevant to
> the above issues in other followups.  Did you miss all that stuff?
>

That was indeed my "real problem," but now I want to make sure I know
how to do this read() thing correctly.  Please see my reply to your
other comments, thanks.