files with strange permissions and attribute

[m.roth2006 at rcn.com]

>Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:12:43 -0700
>From: "Ali, Saqib" <docbook.xml at gmail.com>  
>
>> I had the same 2 days ago with bad parmissions on directory  .
>> You can try by     chmod u=rwx .
>
>Thanks. But before fixing the issue, I would like to find out the root cause. :)
>
A person after my own heart. If it magically broke, it can magically break again.

My only thought was whether the directory was remote mounted.

      mark