I tried removing the space as you suggested

sudo apt-get install openoffice.org-base

and now receive the same message as I did
with:

sudo apt-get install openoffice.org

which is:

"openoffice.org-base is already the newest version."

OK, that's what I thought. Apparently Ubuntu dropped
the OO Database program before 9.04 but after 7.10,
because I first installed Ubuntu 5, then started
fresh with 7.10 and continued migrating forward
each time (until the present) that I had the
opportunity. It may have been part of 7.10 or 8.04
but not 8.10. Anyway, for anyone who needs it,
here it is, thanks all. (comment below)


How to do so from oo-go.org is not evident, nor
from the Ubuntu/Debian repositories.