Aperture3: "internal" import function broken

Well, that provided an interesting result.  After dragging Import Presets.plist to another location, I opened Aperture ​without​ a card reader (or anything else) attached to the USB port.  Aperture opened in Import mode, and showed an "Untitled" removable drive in the left panel.  (No, there is no removable drive arttached.)  And the phantom removable drive cannot be opened, and clicking on the symbol to the right of the drive symbol does not "eject" the drive.

I think I have identified the root of the problem, but now I need a way to demolish the phantom removable drive that appears only in Aperture and not in Finder.