COM, Word problem

[strat_addict]

hello all,
I'm getting a strange error when calling Word with Dispatch. I just
noticed it, since I haven't played around with Word in quite some
time. Anyway, here is what is getting spit back:
>>> from win32com.client.dynamic import Dispatch
>>> word = Dispatch("Word.Application")
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<interactive input>", line 1, in ?
  File "C:\PYTHON21\win32com\client\dynamic.py", line 84, in Dispatch
    IDispatch, userName =
_GetGoodDispatchAndUserName(IDispatch,userName,clsctx)
  File "C:\PYTHON21\win32com\client\dynamic.py", line 81, in
_GetGoodDispatchAndUserName
    return (_GetGoodDispatch(IDispatch, clsctx), userName)
  File "C:\PYTHON21\win32com\client\dynamic.py", line 72, in
_GetGoodDispatch
    IDispatch = pythoncom.CoCreateInstance(IDispatch, None, clsctx,
pythoncom.IID_IDispatch)
com_error: (-2147417846, 'The message filter indicated that the
application is busy.', None, None)

I've seen some book code that doesn't use dynamic in the import
statement and tried this to no avail. All other applications work
(Excel, Access, even Vim)
I've looked at some bug reports on the board that are similar, but I
can't even create an instance. Has anyone had a similar problem? Just
trying to get a sense of what I should try next.

All help is appreciated,
strat addict