hi - i thought i understood from the other threads how to get rid of default sidebar widgets, but i realize i still don't see how/where in 3.49 i can do the following.... e.g. just show recent posts and add a "register" link in a widget/sidebar? the copy below is from a previous thread, but i don't see where/how to do it... thanks for clarifying!

"The default sidebar widget show up if you have none of your own widgets in the sidebar so if you want just a recent posts widget you put just that one in the sidebar and none of the rest will be there. In other words if you have specific widgets you want to show you have to put those in to override the defaults."

In Appearance>Widgets add the desired widgets to the desired sidebar.

(finally) got it! wow, this is a great/flex theme - all sorted! thanks so much!