I have been searching the forums for an hour, so now I have to humbly ask for help .....
Seems that something with Radiant got tweaked. When I saved my map and re-opened it, all the brushes were gone. Filters are not on. I opened up the MAP file with a text editor and only entities are there. Change the BAK to a MAP and everything was back. After saving or Save as, all the brushes disappear again. Oh and the use Quake3.map format is not checked off.
had the same exact problem years ago halfway through a big map and though there are obviously correct technical answers out there, going back to the SNAPshots folder is what was/is easiest for a technological retard (like myself) to do .