Some really good design ideas here, and I look forward to seeing the implementation.
Questions: So it appears that you plan to have images appear in the third "column". Are these thumbnails? If so, how will they behave when clicked? Their own new window? You don't think you will have need for imbedded images? Are you still running with Movable Type as your CMS?
-R

Hi Sissy --- I mean, random web visitor...

You are right -- when in the article page, the thumbnails will be in the third column. My hope is to have them open in a new layer on top of the article, instead of in a new page. Then, when someone is done looking at the picture, they click a close button (or something) and they're returned to their location in the article. I hope that it will make the interaction a little more intuitive than opening a full size image in a new window, or making the user click the back button after looking at the pic.

And yes, I am still using MT 2.64. I want to move up to a new version, but I find that it's best not to mix projects. One of the low level goals of this project is to reduce my dependence on MT plugins (such as the netflix queue). That will make it easier to upgrade.

I'm kinda stuck with MT due to database issues (namely, no MySQL). A couple of years ago, my web host was looking to raise a little cash (i guess) and offered an "eternal" account. I paid a couple hundred bucks, and now pay only $25/year. Until I can beat the price, I'm not gonna move hosts.