problem with expire

[gottlieb]

I used gnus for all my mail including mailing lists (I exclusively use
mailing lists to read newsgroups).  I use nnmail-split to separate
the mail into several lists (i.e. gnus groups).

I have used gnus for years with success and enjoyment, but lately a
problem with expire has come up that I cannot understand.

(rgrep "expi" "*" "/local/allan/gottlieb/.emacs.d/" nil)
shows only two hits

   ./lisp/custom-file.el:62: '(nnmail-expiry-wait 31)
   ./lisp/custom-file.el:40: '(gnus-summary-highlight (quote (((eq mark
      gnus-expirable-mark) . shadow) ...

So I expect msgs with an E to be deleted after a 31 days.
Indeed this happens for all but one group (my main mail group) and many
messages from early feb with an E remain.

Below I show the messages from 9 feb.

It is acting as though Expire Wait is set to never in the *Gnus
Customize* buffer for this group.
But that option is not checked (see below).

Any help would be appreciated

thanks,
allan gottlieb

================================================================

[ ] Expire Wait: [Value Menu] never
    When to expire. More

================================================================


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09-FebE  [  56: Stephanie Tracy        ] [Colloq] TODAY - CS Colloquium - 
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09-FebE  [ 336: Lewisboro Library      ] Lewisboro Library Will Remain Closed 
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09-FebE  [ 101: "mwscas@fe.up.pt" <mwsc] 2nd Call for Paper for 2015 IEEE 
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09-FebE  [  53: Armanda Lewis          ] Reminder: Feb 11th Workshop on 
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09-FebE  [2268: Dell <dell@home.dell.co] Historic savings up to 40% off.