Thanks to the item (found on net) http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/quick-reference/ch-package.en.html I tried the following (as root) cd /var/lib/dpkg mv status status-bad cp status-old status Then I did apt-get update which worked fine (no errors) and then apt-get upgradewhich seemed to re-install some of the packages that were recently part of the Ubuntu update. I suspect I reinstalled the same versions. In any event, it seems to be working again.
JN