Tarte de corneille? tarte is french for a pie, corneille? is that french for crow?
anyway, thanks to all for the help. i think i have altered my view of the electrical circle or loop. before don's last input, i was just about to say, maybe electrons are not necessarily always looking for the earth.
that seems to be the answer to my misunderstanding [i hope]. normally the loop is from the secondary txfr lugs thru the service, loads, and back on the grounded conductor to the txfr neutral lug [without a load, then that path would be a short, but with loads it works, same as a wire plugged into an outlet] or if faulted it returns via egc's, and gec > ge > earth > ground wire up the pole > pole mounted txfr neutral lug > back to the source at the center tapped point. and most significant for my clarification is that the electrons aren't as interested in getting from the center point tap to the ground as they are in taking the route above to return to the source. i'm kinda thinkin outloud here, so probably isn't all together, but i can sorta accept the secondary tap to ground not being a short with this understanding. so don't tell me i'm out to lunch tonight, at least wait till tomorrow.
