Google reader: blank window

It seems Firefox 2.0.0.14 is acting up more frequently and more bizarre than ever. Today, after a restart of Firefox, Google Reader loaded only partially. A blank window with only the text-based menu at the top plus the Reader logo, nothing else. Reader had been running non-stop for a week or so prior to this without any real problem.

I tried emptying the cache, etc nothing would work. Until I read somewhere someone had success with Shift and reload. It seems this forces Firefox to retrieve the data from the Google server. Why a regular reload would not work after emptying the cache is beyond me but it worked.