http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A%2F%2Fjessweiss.com%2Fblog%2Findex.php shows your code is no longer valid xhtml. I suspect that the best first step is to correct the xhtml errors, then correct any CSS errors that may exist.

Hi there - thanks for the help on this. I have corrected the XHTML errors, and removed the hide tags from the css sheet, and I am still having the same problems. Do you have any sense of where else I might look to fix this glitch? :-/ Your help is much appreciated.

Damn. I was hoping fixing that stuff would clear up your issue. Oh well!

I haven't looked at your source or CSS, but here is where I would go if it was me. BTW I'm using Firefox and see where the white background stops happening on the second link you provided. Anyway it looks like you're losing your background after EITHER the end of the post on the second link OR the end of the first bit of your sidebar on the second link. Since the first link has the white background all the way through the posts I'm thinking you are somehow limiting the background to the main posts section. On the first link you provided you are getting the white background behind the sidebar only because the sidebar is shorter than the main posts section.

A test to help determine if this is where you should be looking would be a sample post that has maybe 5 lines of text. If the white lasts through the sample post (meaning a bit more than just the first bit of your sidebar) then you know - generally - where to look for *whatever* is the root cause.

I've got a long work day in front of me that starts 2 hours early so I don't want to poke into code right now. If this little thought gets you going down a path that's great. If not I'll poke into code after my next work day concludes. Assuming I live through it...

Thanks so much Ed - I will play around with it, and see if I can figure it out. If not, I'll let you know. Hope your extra-long work day isn't too taxing. I'm also getting stuck working extra these days, so I completely sympathize.

ETA: Well, Ed, I've been playing with it, and having 0 luck so far. I also downloaded firefox, so I could see what you were talking about. I managed to get the background of the right-most sidebar to display white, so that now in firefox, that whole column shows white, but I get this "step-like" display. I'm still having the same problem in IE.

FWIW, I deleted references to background images in the mainbar, sidebar and leftbar fields on my style sheet, and added background-color: #ffffff.

So, whatever advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Many, many thanks in advance, and again, hope your day isn't too awful.

Many, many, many thanks to Personman, who figured out the problem -

Try putting this at the bottom of the main column:

<div style="clear:both"></div>

And EdB, thanks for your continuing help on this issue.