ok, i've disabled several plug-ins, etc...nothing seems to fix this. I do wonder if it's related to my upgrade from 10.5 (leopard) to 10.6 (snow leopard)...firefox was working fine before...I can also see and use all my bookmarks if i open the side panel of bookmarks in my browser window...but for whatever reason i hate having the bookmarks open that way, using the window space...

so, for the time being, i'm gonna go back to safari...it's too bad, i've been loving and using firefox for years and years...safari don't feel like home to me...i'll keep searching, maybe the apple discussions forum, for a fix...