Well, I thought that was it. Tonight the iPod mini went blank. Pressing the buttons did nothing to revive it. Connecting it to my PC…nothing. I was thoroughly convinced it had become an ex-Parrot. On lamenting my situation to Ray Slakinski over IM, he instructed me to reset the mini by simultaneously pressing the MENU and center buttons for a few seconds. It worked! Thanks, Ray! By the way, Ray works on the iPodderX podcast receiver for Mac.