diary file variables are ignored in emacs and in calendar.el

[ken]

Running "M-x diary", emacs told me it "can't find my diary file
~/diary".  Never got that before, even though I've run "diary" many
times.  In my ~/.emacs it says

(setq diary-file "~/diary.emacs")

what it should be.  And it's there, where it "should" be and where it's
always been.  I track down "diary-file" to calendar.el and do

;;;###autoload
;<ken>changes name from default
;(defcustom diary-file "~/diary"
(defcustom diary-file "~/diary.emacs"

save it, shut emacs down, start it up again with "emacs -q &", do "C-h v
diary-file" and it returns "~/diary"!!!


Is this the work of gremlins?  What to do?

version is: 22.0.50.1

-- 
"This world ain't big enough for the both of us,"
said the big noema to the little noema.