Beginning January 7, some Norton AntiVirus users began experiencing odd and annoying delays when they tried to open some types of documents, such as those created in Microsoft Word. Symantec is blaming Verisign. See the official response here. This article also includes a fairly cumbersome workaround.
Apparently, updating the certificate revocation list resolves the problem. If you’re still experiencing these delays, let me know.
Ed Bott 