Well, as long as we are on the subject of shift boots, does anyone know whether:
a. The shift boot is made of genuine leather
b. The shift boot is made of genuine imitation leather
To my uneducated hand, the boot does not have the feel of real leather, and I have had a few vehicles with leather boots. However, it is such a small part that it is hard to imagine Honda being so 'thrifty' as to save pennies by substituting vinyl for leather.

 

It's vinyl to save weight...

I personally don't care, it looks real enough to me, and noone is ever going to ask if it's not real.

 

'04 shift boot is leather.

 

OK...here's the fixed version. I bought a $0.20 1/2 inch rubber o-ring at the hardware store, then pulled the boot up and turned it inside out, attaching the very top of the boot to the now right side up nut. I then flipped the boot right side out again and put it all back together. I thought I was all set until I screwed the knob back on...when it was fully tight the shift gate graphic was not straight. So, I filed down the top of the nut with a dremel. This allowed the knob to thread down the shifter a tiny bit more. Now everything is tight and the graphic lines up perfectly. I'm not sure how long the o-ring is going to hold the boot in place like this, that nut is polished and therefore very slick.

Anyway, here's the pic.

 

To solve the shift pattern problem you could have used some locktite on the threads, thread the knob on until the pattern is straight and then let the locktite cure

BTW, much better!