wordpress database error…lost connection to MySQL—not just ME?

I posted over on the installation section by mistake…I’ve been up and running for months without a hitch and suddenly today things slowed way down and then tonight, the site stopped opening completely.

I searched the posts here and went into MySQL and followed other advice (Quickie Repair MySQL tables by Paul Stamatiou.com). I also followed other advice on another post and deleted all ping contact except ping-o-matic.

Now I can open my site, very slowly, in Firefox but not in Safari.

The thing is, I don’t seem to be the only person having this problem. And in fact, some blog reader posted on Miscellaneous that several WordPress blogs he was trying to view were giving him the same error that I get. He thought it was his fault.

Could this be a WordPress problem???

Thanks!