TextEdit no longer runs correctly. Launched from GUI or from Finder, results in hang requiring Force Quit. Can I force open with a blank slate?

A few weeks ago, my Mac Mini 2.1 became very slow. I powered cycled to get a fresh start. After this happened, I discovered that TextEdit was non responsive on being laiunched. Activity Monitor shows 100% CPU within 5 or so seconds and the virtual memory climbing without end. I must ForceQuit TextEdit in Activity Monitor or power cycle to regain use of my system.

Anyone seen this before and have a solution? Can TextEdit.app be started with a clean slate?