Well, let me tell myself the solution. Praise BE!
I reverted to the CLASSIC WordPress Theme and bingo, comments function appears like magic.
NOW that’s a glitch!
And that’s a solution.
I am sure there is something imbedded in the classic, perhaps some sort of config function or maybe in comments.php that is different in the default theme, but jeez. I’ve looked everywhere for the solution and no one seems to have it.
Anyway, I’ve solved the immediate problem for what it’s worth.
cheers
geoff