Too Many if Statements?

[slogging_away]

Now that I know the root cause of the problem, I can write around it as
suggested by Steve Holden and Terry Reedy, (and others).  In fact, it
has helped me in a way as I am thinking not in terms of the easiest
solution, (read; the first one that comes to mind),  but more effcient
and cleaner ways to write a section of code to accomplish the same
objective. The key was identifying the root cause which was provided by
the error message seen only at the command line level and by
contibutors to this post.

Thanks again for everyone's suggestions and expertise.