Just got it to work! I just realized had to not only use the plug in, but also cut and paste the code….which is beyond simply putting it in my plugin folder and activating it. But thanks again, great advice…sorry about my jumping to conclusions (user error). Everythings works!
All blogger sites function like this, including my current site (which works the way I like)– http://chrisjagers.net
Notice that as you click a previous post, that post moves to the top of my post list. This is different from a wordpress site where the “recent posts” never change in sidebar. Any advice is appreciated.