Did I damage my cartridge?

Philjolet, that's interesting. The extremephono instructions very specifically warn you not to do that! I "think" the Zerodust is less liquid than the extremephono, so less likely to leave glop on the stylus or cantilever, but pushing down on my cartridge is not something I ever feel tempted to try. Exceeding the designed in movement range of the cantilever would be too easy.

After Zaikesman's post above I dragged out a digital scale and tried pushing very lightly on the platform, just to see how consistently gentle I could be. What I thought would be a small force instantly registered as 50-100g or more! To "push" down with just 1-3g is nothing more than the lightest possible brush of a finger, not really a push at all.

Well, I did just what the directions told me to do. The problem was I knew better and did not feel comfortable doing it.
I have worked out my problems and I do not believe that I did damage my cartridge.
But, I dod not apply pressure anymore.

Thanks for the research Doug, however I'm gratified to see that Scott no longer suspects he damaged his cart after all. In my experience, it's usually all or nothing: either the cantilever is across the room under sofa, or you've lunched a delicate wire and there's no signal, or it's a false alarm and everything's OK (save for the heart attack). Cart's are pretty tough little buggers - right up until the point that you destroy them...
:-)

Scott, that's good news. Glad your cart is okay. Did you figure out why the sound went fuzzy?

I haven't destroyed one (yet) Zaikesman. But with two cats and a klutz of a user it's only a matter of time. Maybe I should keep an old, cheap one nearby to attract accidents. If there are two cartridges the probability that I'll wreck the expensive one is reduced by 50%, right?!

It seems that when I pushed the cantilever down in the goop. It built up on the top. A good quick cleaning solved the problem. Now I know beeter and have just let the weight of the tonearm settle onto the goop, and everything works fine.