jstine,
The favorites cab is attached. As I said before, all credit to MightyMike. I just took out everything that didn't relate to the favorite key setup. The cab I use to modify weather cities is "JVH3_WeatherCityEditor_v3.4.CAB". I also noticed when I tried to enter an appointment in the calendar that the lettering was white on white until I left that particular text box and then it turned black. I haven't done this on another release so I can't tell you it has changed. I do use the weather city editor on each release though. I'm not sure if any of the other programs I installed had an effect (although I install all of them each time).
OK, I got the bright idea to switch the theme back to timberwolf and try it. There were issues with switching the theme, but it took on the second try. I then checked both the appt and the weather city editor and both had the normal black on white in the text entry boxes. =D>
Regarding the speed, I spent most of Saturday playing with different roms. These ranged from having max or cookie installed to running a basic setup. I couldn't see where any of these roms matched your's for speed. I haven't had your passion rom on very long but it seems like the home page is as quick as always. Also the picture and music portrait to landscape animation is still quick. I have noticed that the internet explorer seems to be slower than opera was but I don't know if that's related to the program or the rom. I'll have to install my normal opera 9.7 and compare. Maybe after work tomorrow.
If you'd like my opinion, I prefer max to cookie. Maybe I'm just not use to cookie but I didn't like the way it loses the order of the quicklinks in landscape. I mean it goes across the top row (left page > center page > right page) instead of staying on the same page and going top to bottom. Probably just a matter of getting use to it and, as you said, it doesn't have as many features.
ST