Hi John, sorry for the late reply.
I had difficulties parsing your email because it brings many issues (better to have one email per issue) and it's not clear how the odd behavior you observe depends on the (odd) structure/templates you are using. Can you restate your problems in a way that help me grasp them? I know it's hard, but everything that makes things easier for me makes them easier for everyone - as I'll then have more time to actually fix things. Thanks in advance! -- Bastien