[brityank]

... struck me as strange those addies should be flashing (very quickly) in Firefox's site loading info ...

I don't see that, but it may be the way I have my FF set.

Got AdBlock Plus, NoScript, BetterPrivacy, and Ghostery all active. With those even on sites like Drudge I see very little ads or junk. I know it slows me down slightly, but not to the extent I see on FR.

[tomkat]

I run ABP and Flashblock, along with Malwarebytes and MSE.

Except for the local rag's site, this is about the only news site I frequent .. FR's only lag time competitor I've experienced is Imgur on occasion, which sometimes 'runs around with our hair on fire'.

Speaking of headaches, NoScript often induced them, so it's turned off .. lol