thanks for the advice, everyone.  john, your story reminds me that i'm
glad that my failure occurred just as i was leaving on a long trip,
and not once i was already up in the mountains.  is it normal for blow
by to travel through the pushrod tubes and out through the head cover?
 seems like the dipstick or crankcase vent is the path of least
resistance.  i was actually able to keep driving (on 3 cylinders) to
get the 30 or so miles back home with "minimal" additional oil loss.

i feel stupid already for suggesting a half ass rebuild; strike that
from the record please.  if anyone knows of a "decent" 2.1L wbx engine
for sale, let me know.  i'm in the bay area.  i'll probably send a
separate email to the list about that.

i did pull the valve cover and verified operation while cranking.
things looked normal and the valve springs "felt" ok.  is this enough
of a test?  maybe i should pull the rockers....?

oh well, sad as this is, 180k miles still seems like a lot.  she had a
good life, if not an easy one.  i just always expected i'd loose
compression or oil pressure slowly, or see my oil test results
deteriorate.... wasn't expecting things to happen so fast!

Ben.