Italics behavior

I’m encountering some odd font behavior. For some reason, I cannot use italics in my current manuscript. It is grayed out in the font menu. And so, of course, I can’t used cmd-i either. Has anyone else encountered this? Thanks.

Try changing font. Not all fonts on OS X support italics - for instance, Lucida Grande doesn’t.
All the best,
Keith

Aha! Thanks Keith (not Kevin). Parsimony in all things.