If you have problems getting your .htaccess files working, don't forget to insert "AllowOverride All" into /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf.
I've been having fun with mod_rewrite. For example:
## public_html/archives/.htaccess ## from halcanary.org RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^cat$ /archives/cat.php [L] ## EOF
So /archives/cat is just a pointer to /archives/cat.php.
The whole /p/* directory is just a pointer to a single php script.