COOL! After reading this post today at work, I went to the hardware store, bought a 12 x 1.5 die, went home, threaded the shifter, and chopped 1.5" off.
The whole process took me 16 minutes.
The leather boot did cause an unexpected modification.
To answer your question gotTC... there is a nylon clip underneath the silver ring that you are sliding (it's inside the boot you cannot see it) The shifter rod becomes a larger diameter just below the top of the boot (in the stock position) and the nylon clip rests on the lip created by the larger diameter part of the rod.
In my case I had to remove the nylon clip, and slightly bore out the silver plastic ring so it would slide over the larger diameter part. I also took off the circular spring clip that holds the leather to the plastic ring, took up about 1.5" of slack in the leather, and reinstalled the circular spring clip. This whole process required me to take out the top part of the center console to acess these parts.
In your case gotTC, you will have to rig up something for the nylon clip to rest on, higher up on the shifter rod. I'm at a loss for ideas on that...
Sweet... a short(er) throw for $9. Can't beat that!