I'm so embarrassed I almost considered forgoing this reply. Crow is not my favorite dish, but I'm an honest kind-of-guy who doesn't mind admitting his own studpidity when warranted.

My NS incompatibility turned out to be the result of checking the Always use my colors, overriding the document box of the Appearance/Colors section of NS preferences. Since my background color is white and the text of most table header cells at PM is a similar color . . .

Sorry for having wasted anyone's time and junking up the PMD section.

"Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." -- Will Durant