Question:  in order to make this consistent, can I take away the call to ASDF-MESSAGE and just push the output through without prefixing?

Yes. Though again, consistent would be dropping this pretense of respecting *verbose-out* when most implementations don't and can't; at least not without a serious rewrite. —♯ƒ • François-René ÐVB Rideau •Reflection&Cybernethics• http://fare.tunes.org The Military *did* invent computers: computers sprung forth fully armed from a noncom's aching forehead between two barkings of orders at recruits.