I suppose I should have thought of that (lubricant). it was hard to open when I got it, but I just thought it was because it was such a tiny lever. I'm sure there was some ice up at the hood latch, combined with the sub-zero temps when it broke, I was asking for trouble..
oh well, live and learn. hope it's not too much of a pain to pull/replace.
btw, it's an 02 with 40k, so it did alot of sitting around when it was young. i've almost got it up to 44k in a month, speaking of which it needs an oil change.... grrr.