Lee,
Try a list like this:
(setq l1 '( 1 2 (3 . 4)(5 6 7) 8))
That could have came from same stuff. There were quite a few of us on the Compuserve forum that are still hanging around. It was Autodesk's 'official' forum. ALT- & COMP- stuff was around, just loaded with flamers and junk...
-David