Puzzled with behaviour of a script of mine, works in IDE but not in standalone

[Dave McKee]

I have a button that uses the following script;

send "delete this card" to this card in 500 milliseconds

The button invokes the execution of this script in the stack itself.  It
works ok in the development environment BUT DOES NOT work in the standalone
application.

I'm willing to bet that I am not the first to experience this problem and
would appreciate any insights that direct me towards what I am missing or
even how I could narrow down the problem on my own.