Would configuring screen to store this file on rostov instead of my home directory help matters (make the listing of dead screens correct, make screen -wipe work, make the life of my screen sessions longer in case my machine crashes)?
Oh, fuck yes. That's the problem. Don't EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER stick any local-session-state information on anything but a local drive. The default for screen is "/tmp", and if "/tmp" is NFS-mounted then odds are good you're going to take it up the rear entry somewhere or other anyway. NFS is a source of so much hate even if you're just sticking plain files on it. Named pipes ... crikey.
If for some reason you're running a screen session on a dickless workstation ... oh, christ ... just don't. Just ... don't ...
And a +2 hate bonus for Apple leaving "crikey" and "dickless" out of its spelling dictionary.
