Originally Posted by: WhuneSo what you're saying is...[/quote]
No pain, no gain. :p

Originally Posted by: Whune
Is it permissible to just write it as "1" and "m3" or - less desirably - "1st" and "m3rd"?

Sure, how about upper case M for major & lower case for minor:

major 3rd = M3 or just 3.
minor 3rd = m3 or just b3 ("flat 3rd").

Ultimately, it is, of course, okay to write it anyway you want. But, there are some established standards that do make sense, are efficient, consistent and greatly help in organization & communication.
[QUOTE=Whune]I came across this document in web search
( http://www.tierceron.com/misc/mus116/m116e01.pdf )
the 1 and etc with "a little hat" seems simple enough; but there's various things about the notation that are very confusing to me
(like the fact that ANY of the scale degrees are sharped, let alone the 1st one)
and the Xs on the accompanying staff notation are alien to me as well.

The little hat is a circumflex.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumflex

It's a fairly standard thing I've seen in academic books. But it doesn't translate well in web communication. :) That's why I typically just say or write "major 3rd" or "M3". After all, that's what it actual is: the third degree of the major scale. If it helps your note card writing, then go for it!

Sharp always means up one half-step or up one fret.
Flat always means down one half-step or down one fret.

So, it may seem confusing, but you can have a sharp 1st scale degree. It simply means "up one fret from the root note". The X symbol means "double sharp". So, that means "two frets up".

Hope this helps.