Sneaky Bastard

For some bizarre reason, the ThickBox CSS file (/wp-includes/js/thickbox/thickbox.css) was hanging display of the administrative interface. An HTTP request for the file would not get a response — I even tried connecting via telnet and typing the request by hand. I moved the file elsewhere and made the same request; the WordPress PHP handler correctly responded with the theme’s 404 page. I put a placeholder file in place, and it worked fine.

The solution was to remove the CSS comments in the stylesheet. I don’t know why this would cause trouble at the web server level. Makes no sense.

/* -------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* ---->>> thickbox specific link and font settings <<<---------*/
/* -------------------------------------------------------------*/
...
/* -------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* ---->> thickbox settings <<<---------------------------------*/
/* -------------------------------------------------------------*/
...