Thanks everyone... it really doesn't look like anything I've seen. :\ There's always one major thing that doesn't fit. I threw out the worst affected plants, which left 3 plants. I VERY carefully removed every leaf that showed even a teeny inkling of "the ick" 48 hours later there are no signs of "ick" on any leaves, and the plants are putting out healthy looking leaves all along their bare stems. Let's hope!

He/I is/am keeping the pony tail palm fairly well isolated from other plants. I'm going to keep an eye on things. The repotting can only help, given the soil it was in before. I haven't gone to a true Al's Gritty Mix, but the new soil is pretty chunky, so that can't hurt. The triangular thing is attached fairly tightly to the caudex. It seems to be part of it. At first, I thought it was wax. I might be able to scrape it off, but I'll wait until it is time to either repot or to deal with any reoccurrence of the original mould/mealies/whatever. I'm pretty sure I got the plant on clearance, so I'm okay taking an observational stance for now. Thanks for all of the suggestions and responses from everyone.

That might be damage from a lightening strike. Time will tell if it will recover. Good luck with it.

Okay... am I the only one that thinks the kitchen looks good, with pickled oak cabinets and all? It really doesn't look that dated to me, with the exception of the light box over the island. In my previous kitchen we had honey stained oak cabinets that screamed 1980's and we paid someone to come in and paint them. The people we bought the house from kept the place filthy so we had to do a major degreasing treatment on the cabinets to get the new paint to stick. It really did look good. We had the painted cabinets for seven years and by the end there were plenty of chips and I would not call it the most durable solution (this is with one sweet demure little girl and one wild little boy). We had used oil paint on them, so perhaps a latex wouldn't chip as much?? I don't know. The oil paint was thick enough that the grain didn't really show up much. If it were me (and it is clearly not, so take it for what it is worth)... I would put my money into removing ceiling light box and perhaps a little work on the cabinetry on the fridge side. The cabinets above the ovens and the fridge being just 12" depth is not ideal, and fridge sticking so far out into the space is calling more than a little bit of attention to itself with the stainless front and black sides and top of fridge just inches above top of oven cabinetry. I would possibly put some money into this and live with the cabinets for a while. Sorry if this offends, just being honest as I see it and trying to help. I think your kitchen is really pretty and I bet with nice window treatments and bar stools, it will be a dream.