Thanks for the tip on the -1 switch. Sure enough, there it was in electrum -h.

I can't seem to operate on electrumupzx5w5f.onion  I get a synced message:

synchronizer: connected to electrumupzx5w5f.onion:50001:

But it never seems to connect. It looks like if I don't get a 'synchronizing' message in lower left corner of 1.9.8, and a swirly icon on the right, it never will connect. It can take some time synching chunks, but it needs that message before it will ever happen. the -v switch is my friend! Thanks for the suggestions.