The last glitch remained though and went away only after some "sudo rm." The problem was that the Services menu in all applications was empty, and that cut, copy, and paste were not functioning (paste inactive, clipboard empty).
The problem disappeared by removing the content of the following directories, .DS_Store files included:
~/Library/Caches (your local Library directory)After this, the clipboard was again functioning as well as all Services. As always, be wary when using sudo commands as they will execute as if you were god (don't wipe out your system).
/Library/Caches
/System/Library/Caches
/System/Library/Extensions.kextcache
[Editor's note: I haven't had this exact problem, but I have had other odd glitches that went away when I emptied the cache and restarted.]

