Imagine that!
The old ThinkPad that I used for browser testing finally died, so I didn’t pick up on the problem. Sorry!
Tech note: apparently IE has a problem where it doesn’t allow you to manipulate a form field named "author" with JavaScript if you have an "author" meta tag. Yet another reason to switch from the steaming pile of shit that is IE to something sane, like Firefox. Hell, lynx would be an improvement. At least it has deterministic rendering!
Non-tech note: IE sucks. Firefox is free and does not suck. Please consider switching.