How do you change the cursor?

[Gary Turner <kk5st@swbell.net>]

emacs 19, 20, & 21 on my woody boxes all have blinking cursors, which I
find annoying.  Oddly enough, emacs 20.7 on my winbox does not blink.  I
didn't find anything in the .emacs file that I might have done
differently.  So what do I look for, and where?  

So, the questions are how do I change the default behavior, what is the
command line toggle, and what are the appropriate lines to add to .emacs
to override the default?

While I'm asking, what about changing the cursor character itself?

tnx
--
gt
Yes I fear I am living beyond my mental means--Nash