Thanks for the advice.  Off to notify him.
 
Jilla
 
>I am not a systems expert, but there can be any number of reasons for this
>including the system being overdue for a reboot, hard disk having read/write
>problems, a virus having gotten started up on the system, some sort of
>infinite loop taking place, etc.  I would be sure to mention the problem
>to my system administrator at once.  If he is not already aware of the
>difficulty (and he probably is) he might be grateful for the notice of
>something amiss; extreme delays can be warnings of a system about to
>crash or other major pain-in-the-butt problems for systems personnel.
>
>-- John Witherspoon
>   American University
>   Washington, DC