No, not using a Mac.

Here's what my son, the graphics techie, had to say about it:

"...there are some format translations that just aren't a good idea...pasting illustrator files into ANYTHING is usually not wise. photoshop handles the copy-paste pretty well, but they're both adobe programs. word is very picky, in my experience. I like to use "safe" formats for file transfers...jpeg is good, tiff is good, eps is good. these are formats that are the same on all platforms and all programs because they're recognized standards..."

Doesn't explain the phenomenon but further describes the problem. Interestinger and interestinger. I thought my brain had finally reached the breaking point when I saw everything backwards on the printed page...