Yeah, I have no idea what the hell was happening, and it doesn't make any sense.
I could use Esc to bring it up (which means that GameMenuFrame = table) but trying to access it (e.g., GameMenuFrame:SetScale(1.1) ) would fail, and print(GameMenuFrame) gave a nil. I tried to do a var=nil (one of the other frame names, can't recall which) and it still gave a table reference instead of nil. Copy/paste so no typographical errors.
Removed & reinstalled _retail_ and the code errors went away and it's all working normally now so that's awesome, but it's still
I'm gonna to take some aspirin and alcohol, I think.