i "hand crafted" this thread back together. :D
i had saved the posts i removed from the original thread, renumbered each one so it would start with "000001", stuck them under this thread's topic post (mine), stuck back all the other posts from this thread and renumbered them sequentially to start after the last of the old numbered posts - yep, 129 changes in all! then realized i needed to reset the topic thread post counter, and that did the trick.
but i think it worked. had to save ALL the posts from that way cool thread! :cool: