On 22 October 2021, Ihor Radchenko wrote:

> I cannot reproduce the problem using relatively recent Emacs master
> (commit ae9bfaa891c).
>
> A blind guess: Try to run make clean?

Thanks for checking, and the suggestion.  In the end I think one or the other 
two things did it:

First, rebuilding Emacs with "make cleanall && make bootstrap".  I'd use "make 
bootstrap" to clear out a warning I was getting about Tramp having been built 
with a previous version, and it was after that that my problems started, but 
whether because of it, who knows.

Second, dropping the org-bullets package that makes Org look fancier.  In all my 
looking at warnings and messages I saw some mention of it, so I removed it, and 
then things started working again.

So if anyone out there is using org-bullets and runs into a problem, try 
removing it and see if that helps.

Now I'm using org-superstar-mode¹ and liking it.  In case it's helpful to 
anyone, this is my use-package incantation.

(use-package org-superstar
   :config
   (setq org-superstar-headline-bullets-list '("⊢" "⋮" "⋱" "◉" "○"))
   :hook
   (org-mode . (lambda () (org-superstar-mode 1)))
   )

Sometimes fiddling with Emacs and Org is like spending an afternoon working in 
the kitchen cleaning out the fridge, cleaning the oven, fixing a leak in the tap 
and reorganizing your pots and pans.  Then you discover that when you turn on 
the hot water the refrigeratoor door swings open.  There's no clue why.  You can 
either spend days identifying the problem, or you can live with it, or you can 
move.  Then you ask if this has ever happened to anyone else, and someone says 
they discovered it stops if your feet are bare, and five years later you're 
still taking off your shoes and socks before cooking.

Bill

¹ https://github.com/integral-dw/org-superstar-mode

--
William Denton
https://www.miskatonic.org/
Librarian, artist and licensed private investigator.
Toronto, Canada