I wanted to add that if I remove
<?php
// we add this, to show *all* posts sorted
// alphabetically by title
$posts = query_posts($query_string .
'&orderby=title&order=asc&posts_per_page=-1');
// here comes The Loop!
if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
everything loads “perfectly”. And by perfectly I mean, template loads normally minus any entries.