Text wrapping problems & one other dilemma

I have:

    PowerMac G4 1.25 Ghz
    OS 10.2.6
    Netscape 7.1 (Mozilla 5/0)

I have Netscape Preferences set:

Mail & Newsgroups/ Composition/ Composing Messages -

     "Wrap plain text messages @72 characters."

My problem is, that some of the time the text line, as I'm typing it, 
scrolls off the right side of the window, and the window "stretches" to 
accomodate it. The sentence immediately prior to this one did just that! 
It wrapped at approx. 137 characters! Rather than force a wrap, I'm 
going to send it "as is" to see how it looks when it appears on this 
newsgroup, but my question is, why didn't it wrap at 72 characters?

That's very annoying... any and all suggestions for a remedy are quite 
welcome!

* * *

Can everybody handle another technical question at this time, or do I 
need to make another appointment?  <g>

I had recently added PopCharX to my system, with the activation icon 
showing up in the menu bar - a standard happening with PopChar.
Without my doing anything at all, I just now noticed it has disappeared!
I also added Text-Edit Plus to my dock. It's icon has disappeared too.
Who has a clue as to why?
I have had this sort of thing happen in the past, same OS, etc., with 
other applications, etc., and their icons and location are 
restorable...but why is it happening in the first place?
Why isn't it staying where I put it?

Thanks ahead of time!

keith whaley