Changing system menu title text to icons

[Chris]

I've always hated the "Applications" and "Computer" system menus that
GNOME uses (and now there's a new "Places" in Hoary, argh!).  It might
help newbies but for people like myself that put the panels on the side
of the screen, text just doesn't work because it makes the panel
insanely wide.

I want to make the system menus use icons only (KDE style).  I've
searched far and wide and can't figure out how to do this.  I would
think it would be a common request but I can't find any information.

And is there any way to revert Hoary to use the old 2-menu system?  I
thought having the places/bookmarks in the Computer menu was really
handy just like it was.  The Computer menu was pretty small anyway, I
don't see the need for "Places."

Any clues?

-- 
// Chris