ETA 11/18/12 : I've decided to go with Blue Woodcut for now, although it doesn't use Ariel-style font (or have tags in a column. I can deal.) It's actually quite similar to the Weston series template
gabrielleabelle used but is not completely identical, and rarely seen (at least in this corner of the Buffy-fandom sandbox I play around in.) And: pretty. Easy on the eyes counts for a lot. Thanks everyone for your suggestions.
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Exactly what the title says: I chose this particular template because it had: black print on white ground (hey, I'm getting older, kids - readability? It's an issue - and if it is for me, then....); color around the edges to catch the eye; fairly clean and simple graphic layout; and, the tags were visible. (The template I originally chose was nice, but tags were not visible, so why even bother?)
But - now it's starting to irk me. It feels as though the text is squeezed in too narrowly, and thus my icon becomes more prominent right at the top of each post (or maybe I need to downsize my icons), which distracts my eyes visually when I put a photo at the top of the post.
So, if anyone can recommend another layout - and, oh yeah, it has to be one of the free ones.
I'm not "fussy" - I prefer "particular", thanks muchly.