Thanks for all the responses!
Quote: try pulling the battery(s) and see if that clears things up
Yes, I tried that multiple times earlier this morning... tried throughout the day to see if maybe it would clear up.. am I supposed to push a reset button or something to really make the battery-reset work?
Most of the retailers in NYC are sold out, I got one of the last ones in Adorama when I got mine 3 weeks back. I'm going to return it to Pentax for warranty repair and hope I get it back in a reasonable amount of time.
The camera was awesome when it worked ... so I was livid when the mode dial (of all things) stopped working all of a sudden
... I've calmed down a bit since and try not to think about it
.