I have reopened the facility for commenters to register with the blog and establish a username and password.  The usual email confirmation process applies.

I encourage frequent commenters to use this method of signing in rather than Yahoo so that comments will be identified with a recognizable handle instead of the string of garbage that Yahoo incomprehensibly assigns.

To register, go to the comments on any post, press "Sign in," then "Sign up" and the bottom of the sign-in page.

Hopefully the gremlins that have caused software glitches in the commenting system will remain dormant until we replace the blog software altogether.