If you pound your head against a wall long enough... and if
the wall is thick enough (must be thicker than skull being
applied), I find that I can answer my own questions...
Although there are some scattered articles on the Adobe site
(some contradicting others) the following provides the best "light"
by which I was able to leave my darkness:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/6/Administering_ColdFusion_MX/Security3.htm?
The "root" directory provided by the "default" settings (path
ending with only "\") will apply the permissions to the folder and
ONLY the folder. Hence you can only Read or Delete this directory
(e.g. list files within the directory, or delete the directory...
which *may* not be recommended. Your mileage may vary). As this
applies to only the directory, the Write and Execute are ignored.
Without this "root" path directory defined, even though you may
have the same path and end it with the "\-" which by the
documentation would *seem* to apply to "all files in the present
directory and any child directories, including files in any child
directories" you may not list the files in the "root" directory
unless a path ending with only "\" is defined.