Yesterday and today, having a lot of latency in getting STW to open or move between pages or threads. Just sits there with a blank screen, hung up.
I tried 3 different browsers, same on all. Every other site opens instantly. Download speed is 37 mbps, so not a bandwidth issue.

Not for me.

Maybe the internet is battling a headwind going across the Atlantic today—-well, maybe something more complex than that

Yes

it is possibly the fallout from some people getting rather upset about having their email blocked by Spamhaus:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/28/spamhaus_mega_ddos_little_collateral_damage/

I normally get 20-something mbit/s – the other evening I was getting only 4 mbit/s things still don’t seem to be back to normal.

just noticed that the Emoticons are gone and the links to “quote”, attach photos, etc are also missing above the Post box—did I forget to pay my dues or something?

Yes