beastie boot menu, 4th (forth)

I have two related questions, one being more appropriate for current_at_,
the other for hackers_at_, but they're quite the same thing, so sorry for
the cross-post, I hope it's tolerable (I bet this won't solicit many
replies :).

I dislike the boot menu in CURRENT, and would prefer something that

* doesn't rob me of the text output so far
* displays no mascots or other visual noise

Here's the question perhaps more appropriate for hackers_at_:

I looked into ripping the ascii-art out, but am quite scared. However,
forth looks like it's an interesting (love/hate kind of thing) language,
and I'd like to get my hands on it. Can anyone recommend good (or just
any, really) introductory material? google quickly degrades into misses,
and just a few even of those.

And here's the one for current_at_:

Failing the above query, does anyone have a replacement that meets my
requirements? (But I'd really prefer hacking it myself, so links to
tutorials are awarded with more points than off-the-shelf programs. :)

TIA && HAND!

-- 
If you cc me or remove the list(s) completely I'll most likely ignore
your message.    see http://www.eyrie.org./~eagle/faqs/questions.html