SO It is time to remove dev-lang/python-2.6.6-r2
But, I do not believe the results of this command, as python-2.7x has been installed on this system for some time. I have updated many times with -D and rebuild @system recently. Still many packages are listed as depending specifically on dev-lang/python-2.6.6-r2. Is there a better command/syntax to use to flush out what is still dependent on an old/slotted version of python. python-updater is periodically run on the system, just in case anyone thinks that is the issue. curiously, James