OK, trying to find out if I can encapsulate something into a single script & app. What I need is something to go through a list of email addresses stored in a non-Filemaker (NOW Contact) db and replace any “-” or “&” characters with “@”. I can easily grab the whole text of the field and store it as a var in my script, but the question is: can I manipulate it there? Is there a way to replace the text in the variable string w/o doing something “drastic” such as pasting into a text editor, doing a find & replace, and returning the result? Thanks in advance for any leads here!
Here’s a lead: applescript text item delimiters.
And here’s an example. If you need help putting this into a repeat loop to go through all of your addresses, let us know. 
set address_ to "somescripter&macscripter.net"
set replaceWith to "@"
set badCharacters to {"-", "&"}
repeat with thisChar in badCharacters
try
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to thisChar
set fixinIt to text items of address_
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to replaceWith
set fixed_ to fixinIt as string
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {""}
on error
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {""}
end try
set address_ to fixed_
end repeat
display dialog address_