I see that this is an older thread (3 years), and the OS referenced here was Tiger, but I seem to be having the SAME issue with my MacBookPro OS X10.5.8 (Leopard).
The MENU bar is acting so goofy!! Icons disappear, drop menus won't stay active long enough for me to choose an option, and like the person who started this thread, some icons in the menu bar will stay Blue whether I've used them or not!
This has been an intermittent issue for about a month now.
I can't think of anything lately -- updates, upgrades, downloads, etc. -- that I've done that would cause this issue, and restarting, clearing the cache, repairing permissions, etc. -- the typical 'first fixes' haven't made any difference.
*** Additionally, (in case it's related) my MBP does not shut down or restart without needing the POWER button to physically shut it off. It seems to boot, or start from a cold start okay, it simply will not shut down from the OS!
This problem with shutting down has been going on for about a week. I've listed these issues together because I'm afraid some 'trend' or cascade has started and I don't want more things to go wrong!!! eek.
My 10 year old son does use my MPB to surf the net sometimes, but he doesn't download without my approval (I check the history, download file, etc. to make sure he's not bluffing), so aside from his surfing for game cheats or walk-thrus, I cannot find anything unusual.
As I said before, I've used all the tricks I can think of... so I'm open for any help! I would try the 'fix' that this person has posted, but with the post being so old, I'm hesitant to start messing with files before I know whether those files are still doing the same thing!
Thanks!