Yes, Lynne, this is a wakeup call indeed. I may reinstall and tighten things up after I get the problem sorted out. The main thing now to salvage months of user data, posts, and settings.
I did as Quarterbore said, and confirmed it to be a database problem.
Snakes1100, there are hundreds of pages in the phrases table in the database (if that's what you meant). Any hint where to start?