I once installed a security update that prevented Safari and Mail from launching at all, and it totally bugged me because that’s a default Apple update, you know? So I went to the Apple discussion board and somebody said, “Did you repair permissions first? You should always do that first,” and I was like, “Uh, what? Shouldn’t the updater do that itself, then?” So that’s where the permission repairing started for me.

Anyway, I figured out the issue and helped some other people, so that was cool.

I once overwrote all my system fonts (Arial, Georgia, Helvetica, Times New Roman, etc.) with some corrupt copies I’d accidentally copied from a friend’s machine. The results were quite similar to what you’re seeing.

If you’ve still got the install disc for 10.3, try popping it in the disc drive and look for an “Extras” folder or somesuch. I forget if that’s just an Adobe convention or not, but I think there’s a way to nab file level stuff like this from a central place on the disc.