Ooo boy. Lotsa interesting ideas out there. Thanks for the info., folks.

And for those of you who insist that fingernails are best...well, unless you're a mutant with extremely hard fingernails, you might try clear acrylic fingernails. I tried it once -- in a part of town where I hoped nobody would recognize me, I ventured into a nail salon and they put goop on your finger nails, about 1 mm thick -- it hardens quickly and zap! you've got real claws. They are noticeable (mostly because the colour match isn't exact and the tips aren't like real nail tips). They do require filling (every couple of weeks) at the root and filing at the tip. And if you want to take them off (actually, you're not supposed to be able to, but I did), you strip off the top layer of your fingernail at the same time which leaves you with really weak thin fingernails for a couple of months. But the serious fingerpickers I know swear by 'em.

And for those of you who would use unadorned fingernails, may I suggest a thumbpick? It changes the angle that your other fingers attack the strings and thus lets you get away with using shorter fingernails. :-)