uh...I know! I assume you have your comments set on "full" meaning you see the full text of the comment with the poster, time, etc. as it appears on the threads. If you go to the top-right corner and click the "brief" link underneath "ping|mail|etc." then you will get your pings as only the title of the thread, poster, time, and post number. If something like that were to happen again, you can switch to this view until you have gotten enough pings to get it off the screen.
Thank you for the help. I appreciate it very much.
Sorry for the interruption!