As a bit of a postscript, should one ever care…
After all was done and joy returned had to the land, I had an alias file (Mac OS 9) that I could not delete. I could delete it, sorta. But when I restarted, it returned, as if by magic.
After some sleuthing about, I discovered it was a symbolic link. To permanently nuke that rascal, I had to resort to using the Terminal sudo rm –r technique.
And now, all is sweetness & light-