>I get the same recordset. It seems that in VFP {11/31/2006} evaluates to an empty date for some reason. I declare x as DATE() and I see the date when I do ?x but if I set x = the literal date {11/31/2006} I get ' / / ' back.

Try with the strict date format, {^2006/11/30}... and and keep in mind that November still has only 30 days in Calendar 2.0.