I realize (hope) I am doing something absurdly foolish, which means this can be an easy fix. I somehow changed something which removed the login fields from any pages. I figured it would be easy enough to fix...some permissions dealing with anonymous users not allowed to view the login block. however the Anonymous user's group is allowed to see the "Login" block. The 'login' section appears for anonymous users on the left front page as i set it, however there are no entrys or fields in the login section. This is the same regardless of theme.

Can anyone please tell me what foolish thing I am doing wrong?

Check your settings for the block in System Admin - Blocks, it may be turned off there.

Am I missing something....without diving into the php at this point?