thanks, that is the top level answer, but that doesn't explain why changing the underlying SQL data type from nvarchar(max) (which was overkill for a 2-character field)
to text, or nvarchar(50) or something that is quite convertible
still shows up as MEMO in Access. after relinking, quitting and restarting, etc.
But this is most likely an Access issue, as I said, just wondered if anyone else had bumped up against this and had a solution from the SQL side.