Wow. THANKS Pat! Velvet is right, you know your stuff. This is enormously helpful and I appreciate the time it took for you to write it all up so nicely. Thanks to Velvet and everyone else for being helpful as well.
More than a grand is a bit steep, but it's good to know I could get the money out of it later. I think the tenor is the way to go for me, "easier" being important. It's also helpful to read not to get a student version ... I saw a lot of webstuff that said to go for the yamaha (23?) because it was the best student sax, and the cheapest ones on L&M are listed as student ones.
So, I guess I gots me some deciding to do.