>  It gets called exactly once (from C code, see src/base.c) before  
>  initialization of any the video subsystem.

Aha!  That led me in the right direction -- in the hybrid  
config_unix.py/config_darwin.py I made (no frameworks in fink SDL), I  
messed up the compilation flags so 'darwin' was not set.

Now everything works just as you say it should.

Thanks for your help!

Ben