After Software Updates, Safari 6.1.1 can't open pages

Question

I'm running 10.7.5, and installed the recommmended software updates an hour ago. They included an update to Java and a new version of iTunes, and a number of other things, though I don't recall that a new version of Safari was among them.
Afterwards, Safari tries to open but cannot even show the windows it is trying to open (that were open when it last ran). I can look at them by using the dock "Show all windows", and the tab titles are there, but nothing opens. Spinning beach ball.
Happily I have Firefox on my MBP 2011, so I can get here to ask this question. Always have two strings to your bow.
The Console report does show an install of Safari 6.1.1 at the time of the software update, and I have Diagnostic reports for the crashes of Safari since then but they do not mean much to me. I cannot locate a standalone version of Safari 6.1.1 in order to reinstall it.
Advice?

Answer 1

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
Step 1
Make sure the title of the Console window is All Messages. If it isn't, select All Messages from the SYSTEM LOG QUERIES menu on the left. If you don't see that menu, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar.
Enter the name of the crashed application or process in the Filter text field. Select the messages from the time of the last crash, if any. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message (command-V).
When posting a log extract, be selective. In most cases, a few dozen lines are more than enough.
Please do not indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Important: Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.
Step 2
In the Console window, look under User Diagnostic Reports for crash reports related to the crashed process. The report name starts with the name of the process, and ends with ".crash". Select the most recent report and post the entire contents — again, the text, not a screenshot. In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.) Please don’t post other kinds of diagnostic report — they're very long and not helpful.