// upon return or (b) locking is irrelevant.

// StartFunction begins the process of handling a request.  If the
// request gets queued then this function uses the given hashValue as
// the source of entropy as it shuffle-shards the request into a
// queue.  The descr1 and descr2 values play no role in the logic but
// appear in log messages.  This method does not return until the
// queuing, if any, for this request is done.  If `execute` is false