eadap

For the first problem (disappearing text), you can edit the file
~/.themes/MacOS-X/gtk-2.0/gtkrc

near the top of the file in the "default" style there is a line that says:
fg[PRELIGHT] = { 1.00, 1.00, 1.00 }

Those numbers are treated as rgb values between 0 and 1. So I changed mine to:

fg[PRELIGHT] = { 0.25, 0.25, 0.25 }

And it makes the text a shade of gray which is visible against both white and blue backgrounds - Jun 21 2005