RN> I think I have narrowed the problem to certain sites when I'm
 RN> prompted to update my Flash Player.  I recall letting that happen
 RN> once, but nothing noticeable took place.  I'm only guessing at this
 RN> juncture, but I may well be right. 

i see this type of thing quite a bit because noscript is blocking the flash
player stuff for one reason or another... in many cases, there's a notice
along the lines of "if you can't see the flash playing, then you need
to update your flash player" and they generally provide a link... the
thing is that this is an erroneous message and they are assuming that one's
flash player is too old or simply not installed... they are not considering
the fact that it may be being blocked... once i tell noscript to allow the
site hosting the flash stuff, then it comes up and works... most of the
time, though, i tell noscript to temp allow the other site because i do not
want it allowed all the time from just any domain i may be visiting ;)

)\/(ark