Thanks to Demetri and TomW for figuring this out. There are LOTS of variables and options that can be configured for this board....and after a short search I finally found the one that was allowing anonymous comments, but not anonymous stories. It's turned off now; there should not be an option for an anonymous comment anymore.
As of now, anonymous folks can read stories, read comments, and vote in polls, but that's it.
A lesson for all users of the board -- us ADMINs try our best to get things working smoothly and keep everybody reasonably happy. But this board is so flexible, it's pretty complicated. We miss stuff all the time, and this was an example! So please continue to let us know if something seems odd.
The next thing up will be a mod to deal with people who post comments to old stories. We are not sure yet if it will be bumping the date tag up, or a "Read All New" function -- probably the latter.
Cheers
ADMIN
(DanF)