Thanks. I do that frequently.
In this case I ran Repair Permissions and Verify Disk. Nothing apparently awry (except for the "unexpected" ACL issue*, which always shows up and is "repaired" by Disk Utility).
* Unexpected ACL issue:
ACL found but not expected on “private/var/rootâ€
Repaired “private/var/rootâ€
ACL found but not expected on “private/var/root/Libraryâ€
Repaired “private/var/root/Libraryâ€
ACL found but not expected on “private/var/root/Library/Preferencesâ€
Repaired “private/var/root/Library/Preferencesâ€