damn, damn, damn.... that last prodding got me into mysql and poking around and when I finished with that I changed the privileges to:
create,insert,drop,alter,select,update,delete
and now the bloody thing works just fine. The error messages produced could be a bit more verbose, but, more importantly, the installation instructions need to be fixed!
When I applied the privileges per the installation instructions I thought it odd that some of the basic ones (like select) were left out. I made the (obviously rash) assumption that the privileges specified in the instructions would work with this software. Obviously not true. I had to add to the privileges to get the setup to run and again to get the software to run.
Who do we notify to get the installation instructions corrected so that others don't have to jump thru these hoops?