Well Folks, whoever said they will NOT sprout was correct!
Not one seed sprouted.

As a sanity check, about 7 days ago, I made a second set of
seeds taken from a green jalapeno pepper that I purchased
from the local outdoor fleamarket produce stand. I have
a few seeds sprouting in this set so my technique is not
the problem.

For some unknown reason I can never get pepper seeds
to sprout that I purchase at the local Acme supermarket.

Go figure.

---pete---