I decided dig thru the 200+ pages of answers in this thread and I found the answer to my problem listed above. Just to reiterate, here's what choosealogin suggested:
First check to see what version of PHP 5 you are running.
If you're not sure, go to admin > tools > server info ...php version # will be at the top.
I suspect it's PHP5.
IF THAT IS THE CASE,
In your easypopulate.php file
Find
array_walk($readed, 'walk');
replace with this
//array_walk($readed, 'walk');
foreach ($readed as $readed_record) {
walk($readed_record);
}
If it's NOT php5, don't change anything at this point.
Thanks, choosealogin!