Anyhow, I was finally back to the default prefs in Apple. So I spent time resetting the prefs to suit me. I quit MAIL. Waited a bit and relaunched and I'm now back to Apple's default prefs for mail:
http://spatulagraphics.com/images/mailNOW.jpgI reset prefs, rebooted my iMac, relaunched MAIL and it's back to Apple's default prefs.
I rebooted my iMac into the admin acct, ran diskutility again, nothing wrong with anything, back to my user log-in, launched MAIL, and reset my prefs again. Quit mail, relaunched and ... back to default prefs.

I have no clue what to try, what's wrong, or anything else. I do know that I am now so annoyed that I'll restore my 10.8 and forget all this. But I can't do that until Wednesday!
Oh well. Maybe I'll find a solution before then.

Edited to add: one new item: unread messages are no longer
bolded.
PS: xABD ... I agree with your comments on Adobe and fonts. When I launched CS6 just a bit ago, I was presented with a window that said "rebuilding text tool".

Now the all your base video ... that's hysterical!!!!!!!! Thanks for the laugh.