I just pushed my "git revert" of the commit that broke DEBUG.
Two points:
1) ./validate --slow froze a couple of times, and I'm running out of time in this building (end of internship), so...
2) I again validated without --slow
My logic is: my patch only affected DEBUG, my reversion probably fixes that, and I have confirmed that this patch also passes a standard validate, so I pushed.
I'll keep checking my email in case I have somehow made things worse. (My nerves are a little fritzed.)
HTH. Sorry for the noise.