Thank you for the help. Can perhaps you explain why there is a `list' here?
(slime-eval (list 'swank:eval-and-grab-output (format "%s" '*package*)))
as opposed to
(slime-eval (swank:eval-and-grab-output (format "%s" '*package*)))
Perhaps that would help me understand what I find to be an even more perplexing question (from a separate thread)!
http://common-lisp.net/pipermail/slime-devel/2007-June/006290.html