The short turned out to be a wire that connects the ignition coil to the choke. It took the help of several VW experts on the Air Cooled VW Club message board (Yahoo board - I highly recommend it) to help me figure out what it was.
If you can see the green wire coming out of the left side of the ignition coil, this is my very first wire that I made myself! My $289 wiring harness kit has scads of wires, but too bad for me, this wire wasn't one of them. Another trip to AutoZone. When I got there, I found wires from 10 gauge to 22 gauge, and all sizes in between. So I bought some of each, and a set of wire connectors. I had seen a mechanic make a wire, so I figured why not give it a shot. Sounds hard, but really it is a piece of cake. I matched up wires until I found the right size, cut the wire to the same length as the old wire. Then I stripped the insulation off the ends, slipped them into the connectors and crimped the middle. 15 minutes later I started the car! No smoke, no fire.
There was a mystery wire, fried to a crispy well-done, that seemed to go nowhere. It wasn't on my wiring diagram, so I just threw it away and pretended it wasn't there. Since the car is running, I guess I don't need it. If I ever find out what it does, I'll post an update.
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