Heads up to anyone else!!
First- THANK YOU Bill!!
Just bought a Button-LCD shield by SainSmart- was looking for example code and found this thread- LUCKY ME!!
April 2013 and STILL the same problem- except on this board there is a 1K resistor where there is a 4.7k on the schematic!!
(took the LCD off the shield to look)
Trying your test caused the Arduino to disconnect from usb so it definitely shorted!!