i've been travelling and am now getting back to my aquamacs difficulties. i'm using the nightly build you linked me to, and am walking back all configuration files, starting from scratch. as matters now stand, on startup i get the following messages:
Loading prestart plugin files ...
... done.
Wrote /Users/rwh/Library/Preferences/Aquamacs Emacs/Packages/.nosearch
Shell: /bin/bash
Warning: Key <remap> <scroll-up> already bound to `cua-scroll-up' by minor modes (cua-mode). Use ‘define-key’ instead.
Warning: Key <remap> <scroll-down> already bound to `cua-scroll-down' by minor modes (cua-mode). Use ‘define-key’ instead.
Loading /Users/rwh/Library/Preferences/Aquamacs Emacs/Recent Files.el (source)...done
Cleaning up the recentf list...done (0 removed)
Mark set
one-buffer-one-frame-mode disabled.
27 environment variables imported from login shell (/bin/bash).
Loading /Users/rwh/Desktop/Aquamacs.app/Contents/Resources/lisp/aquamacs/edit-modes/tex-site.el (source)...done
Loading /Users/rwh/Desktop/Aquamacs.app/Contents/Resources/lisp/aquamacs/edit-modes/auctex.el (source)...done
Loading /Users/rwh/Desktop/Aquamacs.app/Contents/Resources/lisp/aquamacs/edit-modes/auctex/preview-latex.el (source)...done
Loading /Users/rwh/Desktop/Aquamacs.app/Contents/Resources/lisp/aquamacs/edit-modes/auctex/preview-latex.el (source)...done
Loading plugins ...
Loading /Users/rwh/Desktop/Aquamacs.app/Contents/Resources/lisp/aquamacs/site-start.el (source)...done
... done.
Loading /Users/rwh/Library/Preferences/Aquamacs Emacs/customizations.el (source)...
one-buffer-one-frame-mode enabled.
Loading /Users/rwh/Library/Preferences/Aquamacs Emacs/customizations.el (source)...done
Loading /Users/rwh/Library/Preferences/Aquamacs Emacs/Preferences.el (source)...
package-read-archive-contents: Wrong type argument: listp, <!DOCTYPE
Type "q" to quit the help frame.