Just to answer a couple of the messages i received.....
1) i use gnome, not kde. Shouldn't matter, but maybe there's some
weirdness. I haven't tried to see if the menu's in kde change (i didn't
install it so i can't run it), but i have tried icewm and it hasn't
changed either.
2) i did make sure the changes i made were marked "ALL" in the "context"
menu, which i assume should get the changes into the gnome menus. Also,
i run it while logged in as root, which i also assume is correct.
3) i also tried logging out and back in.... entries still not in the menus.
Ken