- i know it's bad form to post a reply to one's own post, but as an update on this feeble-minded printing solution:

i added an ash 'read' statement to the original script, and hardwired in a user- and hostname:

#!/bin/sh
# printit.sh - simple print for 770, n8x0
echo "File to print:"
read file
cat $file | ssh a_user@remote_box '( lpr )'
exit 0

- the desktop entry:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=0.1
Type=Application
Name=printit
Exec=/home/user/apps/printer.sh
Icon=qgn_list_gene_default_app

- and an osso-xterm one-liner (which gets around a convoluted '-e' osso-xterm option command line) named printer.sh and stored under /home/user/apps:

#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/osso-xterm -e /home/user/apps/printit.sh

- selecting the printit menu item opens an osso-xterm window which prompts for a filename (type full pathname to the file, such /home/user/MyDocs/foo.pdf or /media/mmc1/mypics/foo.gif), and then waits for an ssh password prompt on the remote box (OS X, *BSD, or Linux) hosting the *nix print server and lpr command...

- i guess one could put in an 'ls' command for a specific directory before prompting for the filename as a reminder - perhaps:

ls /home/user/print_folder/

- anyhow, now i have printing off the task menu!

- hope this helps someone!