Ok. After listening to all of the advice here. And after getting good advice and communications from several of the whistle makers on this forum, here are the decisions I have made to get started. I know there are many other things I could do but this was my start.
Purchased a Jerry Freeman Mellow Dog from Doc at Irish Flute Store
Purchased the Clarke Tin Whistle book and CD.
Purchased the canadian maple Obrien Rover you saw on his post of three whistles. (I couldn’t help it I wanted wood and the price fit my budget .
Downloaded Joannie Maddens Irish Whistle Music 1 (everyone says it’s important to listen and I liked her music)
All three are in the proverbial mail. Can’t wait. I really appreciate all of your advice and can’t wait till I can contribute to the site.
You’re doing it all backwards. You’re supposed to ignore all advice, make a bunch a rash purchases based on the prettiness or some mystical telepathic quality, get on a decade long waitlist, and then try to lead a session. After that you come back to say the whistle was the worst experience of your life and we’re all to blame.
I bet you even have your practice area all set up nice and neat.
Enjoy your journey Steve…from the minute you grab all those whistles out of their boxes…to your first squeaks, to learning your first song…etc. I am currently re-learning the whistle…trying to stop some bad habits I acquired the first time along. I also have mutiple whistles! Love each and every one. I am currently going to stick with one, until I un-learn my bad habits. Having fun with my Blackbird and Grey Larson’s book as I learn the correct way to play cuts. On to taps, and rolls!
Please post often to let us all know how you are progressing! Remember..enjoy the process!
Talking of doing it backwards: Eighteen months down the line I’m tootling away desecrating the Kilavel Jig on a whistle that I waited five months for and spent a fair amount of hard earnt cash on when 'er indoors, who was accompanying me in the desecration on her fiddle said why don’t you try it on that little red one. Result: Clarkes Sweetone won! Something hugely satisfying about being able to play half decent music on an instrument that cost but a few pennies.
Freeman Yellow Dog was sitting in the carport when I arrived home…took it inside…plugged it in…it didn’t play… just kidding. Then I went to youtube and went through Ryan Dunns first lesson. I could handle that. Then I went to the second lesson and got through the first section of that song.
Interesting observation…It doesn’t take much breath at all to play this in it’s lower register. I have to be careful how much I blow. And it’s really easy to switch to the second register at the low end. I really thought I’d have to blow harder to get sound out of one of these.
Now I had a Guiness whistle that I had a real hard time getting decent sound out of. But after fooling around with the Yellow Dog even the Guiness is a little easier to manipulate. This is cool. But I can see how it’s gonna take some time to be able to slap my fingers around like I see you folks to on Youtube. Slow…Slow…Slow…
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Good luck fellow journey-taker! 
