Ahhh, I think I figured it out.
I am a numbskull sometimes (ok... most of the time).
I was applying these validations to an insert page created by dataAssist.
One problem, though - dataAssist does not add the encoding for the form for file handling such as: enctype="multipart/form-data"
After adding that, it appears that life will, in fact, go on.
I even hear that the world will continue rotating.
Amazing.
Thanks,
Brian