Whoa, strange. That is supposed to be the Georgia font. If Georgia is not available, Firefox will use the "serif" font set in your Options here:

orange Firefox button or classic Tools menu > Options > Content

Under Fonts & Colors, click the Advanced button. The usual default serif font is Times New Roman. Can you try that?

If you already have Times New Roman, then perhaps something is wrong with your Georgia font. Can you examine it in another application such as a word processor?

I have Time New Roman... I thought I had Georgia... but can't seem to find it in my fonts folder now... Could the uninstall have deleted the Georgia font?

I forgot to mentiion... When I first start FF, it seems to use a "replacement" font that looks like Arial, but after a few minutes it goes to that weird font.

Can I just download Georgia font from anywhere?

My default font IS set to Times New Roman size 16.

It's possible that some uninstaller might uninstall a font. It's certainly not very considerate. Geogia was supposed to be included in Windows XP (at least as of SP2) per this page: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/product.aspx?pid=145

Maybe you can get the font back through the Windows add/remove features dialog? If I recall correctly, this is somewhere in the Add/Remove programs dialog, maybe along the top or side.

Also, consider consulting a more Windows-focused site such as Windows Secrets Lounge: http://windowssecrets.com/forums/

I copied all four variants of the Georgia font from my laptop to my desktop. Seems to have solved the problem. Fingers crossed though... will wait for 24 hours to see if it reverts back to weird font.

I forget my manners... thank you so very much Jefferson!