Well, DUH. I have been struggling of late with shooting crisp images even using my tripod. I thought I was getting sloppy with my technique, jerking the shutter, or the VR was going wonky on the Tam.
Just now, checking something else, I looked at the picture control setting and found it was set to 0. I have not got a clue how that happened or why, but I know I set it at 7 right from the beginning. ...
Took a shot and noticed I had multiple focus points when I shoot with just one. The Nikon fairy changed my setting to EFFECTS from U1. Haven't figured out how that happened since the little button on top has to be depressed to turn the dial.