Dual DBs create “WordPress database error”

OK, I’ve got an existing DB for my site that handles the content. It’s a comic strip archive site, and I’ve got a DB called “barnaclepress” that holds all of the image filenames, information about creators, etc.

Then, I’ve got the blog portion, set up with a WP DB called “barnacleblog.”

So, I’ve got a dbConn file being called, to get the listing of comics, then the WP stuff. The problem is that the connection object is lapping over into the WP side. I’m getting the following:

WordPress database error: [Table ‘barnaclepress.wp_users’ doesn’t exist]
SELECT * FROM wp_users WHERE ID = ‘3’ LIMIT 1

It’s right: there is no table named thusly in the “barnaclepress” DB, it’s in “barnacleblog.”

How can I disentangle the two? If I remove the dbConn, the errors go away, but I don’t have the comic listing… This leads me to believe that the dbConn object is hijacking the connection for WP. But then, I don’t get why the blog posts still render. The only parts that don’t render are the “next/last” links, the category listing, and the archive listing.

You can see the site, with ugly errors, at http://www.barnaclepress.com