With brand new chips a whole lot of problems are ruled out.  After having some odd issues with a clock project...

...I finally figured that it might be a good idea to test on another breadboard.  Apparently that was an issue.  Then, because I had an issue with the speed of the onboard clock I checked the datasheets and found the issue...but in checking for that I realized that in my software (ponyprog) the fuse bits are for some reason read...INVERTED.  Explains the funky behavior I've had on other projects.  So anyway, I've got my new chips...I've got the test chip here set up (I think) to run at 16mhz with it's internal clock...so I think I'm good to go.