It's not that I didn't do all that. English is the default that is shown for XP and Office.  I don't have any prolems with the spell check or the options selected for them--everything is in English. I rebooted just to make sure.

But when  I go back to Outlook Express, it only offers me French asa language. It won't let me add English. It doesn't offer a pick list (well, it does, but the list only has France).

It's really a funky thing.

A known bug. 

But an irritating one.