"Comments are closed" problem opening them

Each page shows "comments are closed" at the bottom. I want all pages to be able to be commented on (for now).

There is one page which someone has somehow managed to leave a comment and that page does not show this message at the bottom. That was several weeks ago and when i had another theme.

I've done the following (it's been that way all along):
1) ATO->Style & configure COMMENTS->Allow comments on "Page" pages, too? must be set to YES
2) dashboard->Pages->Edit->page-you-want->Discussion->Allow Comments - must be checked.

Just now I deactivated all my plugins and no change.

Also, I've spent some time searching the WP.org forums. I've found the issue raised several times but none resolved. Example: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/258518?replies=6.

Atahualpa 3.4.2
WP 2.8.3

Scott