Have a closer look at your Saved Sims folder, sometimes the culprit's in there.

Maybe Nvidia cards generally have a problem with processing and displaying more complex textures, and there is pretty little you can do about it.
I found out that whenever the size (zoom) of a texture changes or a sim spins to change clothes, the lawn for example gets completely blurry.
It was so annoying that after two years I finally gave in and got myself another graphics card.

Whew, I'm logged in after ages of absence 'cause I cannot ignore a fellow sufferer.
After years of playing with an Nvidia Geforce FX card (and in-game graphics blurry as hell) I can only tell you that there are far too many variables in this mess to determine the actual issue easily:
Driver version, driver settings, game graphics settings, you name it.
It's not enough that every computer is different: It seems that any new driver installation behaves differently, not to mention the settings of said driver.
Nevertheless, I found this at MTS2:
<a href="http://www.modthesims2.com/article.php?t=97876">
Use with caution, because the newer EPs are not regarded in this article! You could end up with a nasty triangular/spikey mess in-game.

The moral might be that an Nvidia card is very likely not be the best solution for your game in the long run.

There already is a thread about random fires right here.
Maybe some of the suggestions made there can help you.

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,11676.0.html

I agree about the lack of random sim death.
It's a real virtue that sloppy sims are faster with finishing their meals off, but there should also be some random chance of choking for the gorging gluttons.
This would be even more realistic than the constant starving that's going on in the game.

So the rubbernecks do indeed leave after a while? Very good.
What about other household members, would they watch until they starve or pass out?

WTF???

This conflicts with about every existing natural law.
And it looks like an implanted piece of furniture.

Unfortunately I'm familiar with the nvidia issue as well.
Newer forceware versions (plus the blurry textures configuration fix at MTS maybe) resulted in various crashes and glitches for me:
Black faces on sims, weird triangles everywhere, furthermore an apocalyptic neighbourhood screen in purple and black, crashes to desktop or a sudden computer restart.
After removing forceware plus the settings folder and reinstalling my (very) old drivers the problem seems to be gone, but the performance is still kind of shaky sometimes.

Binary search (post #7):
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7437.0.html

Well, that kinda affirms my suspicion.

As Zazazu said, nothing, until it's proven with a picture.
Call me paranoid, but it rather sounds as if the parrot randomly chose a bunch of BBS thread topics, mixed them up, and opened this thread.
By the way: It seems that quite many wannabe trolls actually do read the FAQ, just to know how to piss people off by doing the exact opposite.

Ah, the *.* must have worked.
If someone is 'desperate' enough to open a thread with a FULLCAPS title and uses about 500 smileys and exclamation marks in her/his post, this is the only possible way of getting rid of all the software trouble at once.

Yet another RL-ready thread opened by parrot.
Or is this a test (of whatever)?

No, there is no townieism in my game, some of my sims' best friends are townies.
It's just so much more convenient to not change their looks the OFB way (makeover business), and use any useful hack there is instead to do it.

But you have to be polite to them! *shudders*

Of course, can-kicking idiots like Komei Tellerman get NO makeover after picking up the mess they made and some extra gardening macro:
their reward is one or two lightning strikes, straight into the skullcap.

On-topic: Running a clothing business or a makeover salon for the purpose of changing your townies' appearance is really frustrating IMO. It's just not worth the effort.

I very often shanghai random townies by making them selectable, and then force them to e.g. clean the house.
As a small compensation, I let them use the mirror to change their looks before sending them back to the street.

Via SimPe:

Open neighbourhood and select your townie, then go to 'More' and choose 'Clothing'.

http://s257.photobucket.com/albums/hh234/ahagen33/?action=view&current=spe.jpg

1. Click on the property set you like to change.
2. Use the 'u' tab to open a popup window that lists the property sets of other Maxis outfits. Your choice is limited here, but hey, better than nothing!
Choose the file you want to use, close the popup window.
3. Press 'commit', the map of the less fugly should show up in the bottom window now.
4. Save and repeat for every townie in question.

The next time you play, edit their appearance.

I know that this is no ideal solution, but at least your playables' closet will stay clean!

Even in the intro!

That's exactly what I thought when I saw it the first time, but my son explained it to me like this:
They get rid of of their metabolic waste products by barfing (hairballs and pellets). Ugh!

Maybe even conjoined pets?

Deleted my last post because I am crackbrained and did not read SarahMK's post. Sorry.

Now these dog wings reminded me a bit of this:

If Corpso wasn't that undernourished he might pass for the Electabuzz way better than the attempt shown above.

Gator dog's grin is simply great, the beast looks like a corrupt politician in the middle of a campaign.
And its eyes suggest pure lunacy.