Thanks for the tip Alan.  I had no trouble installing smart and following
the instructions. Smart started up just fine and indicated 188 upgrades and
some new parts needed (I forget how many).  Following the instructions it
started to download a ton of stuff though it got VERY slow after a while.
My cable connection seemed ok when I checked form another machine.  Finally
after about 4 hours, the download finished and the next step started:

log ended up saying:

Trying to import the key ac3c8ba827db6f5b from subkeys.pgp.net...
error: gpg failed to import keyid ac3c8ba827db6f5b, please make sure that
gpg is installed, that the keyserver subkeys.pgp.net is working and that the
package /var/lib/smart/packages/hplip-1.6.9-5.pm.1.i586.rpm has a valid
signature.

error: hplip-1.6.9-5.pm.1.i586.rpm: public key not available


also got an error box which said

hplip-1.6.9-5.pm.1.i586.rpm: public key not available


and yet a third dialog box which said:

gpg failed to import keyid ac3c8ba827db6f5b, please make sure that gpg is
installed, that the keyserver subkeys.pgp.net is working and that the
package /var/lib/smart/packages/hplip-1.6.9-5.pm.1.i586.rpm has a valid
signature.

I closed everything and ran smart again.  It went quickly to the verify key
again and failed again.  I am sending this before rebooting and trying again
so as to not lose the pasted quotes.