This system is a 3.0 Ghz P4 with 1 GB ram in an HT configuration.  Every
once in a while it appears to run 50% cpu usage permanently.  I am believing
that is actually 100% of one virtual cpu.  top shows the offensive process
to be gnome-cups-icon.  A while back I found a discussion of this problem
with a suggestion that the problem could be solved with "sudo killall -TERM
gnome-cups-icon".

That works and seems to have no ill effects but I have never found an
explanation of why this happens or any preventative correction.  Anyone have
a clue?

-- 
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind.  - Dr. Seuss