Yes, my laptop arrived safe and sound. Well, mostly safe. It was actually delivered to another address on campus, but it eventually arrived at Afilias.
Tonight, as I wait for the phone to ring, I decide to play with the fan and see if I could shut it off. I can:

# sysctl dev.acpi_ibm.0.fan=0
dev.acpi_ibm.0.fan: […]

Odd how grown men, myself included, get giddy about new toys. My IBM ThinkPad T41 is no longer reliable. It has taken to being heat sensitive. I suspect something inside is broken / slightly disconnected and as the heat inside increases, a connection fails. I have tried to fix it, but failed.
It […]