Thanks for replying Vero and Andrew! I wish it were as simple as it not being enabled. It's that when I have it enabled I can use what currently exists in the clipboard, but I cannot copy new items to the clipboard from a subset of the applications on the local system. Is that a better description?
I wish it were that I'm a budding power user who need but a simple nudge in the right direction(enable the damn thing). Alas, it seems to be either an actual bug or a potential conflict with another user-space application? There's an intermittence to the issue as well; on restart it will work correctly for a seemingly arbitrary amount of time. I'm assuming I'm the only one reporting such troubles post-upgrade to the latest Yosemite? So hopefully it's something simple and not a change in how the system calls for clipboard are being made. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Happy to gather any requisite info!