Pfthb

I am having some (more) difficulties getting my emacs config to work. I want to use Flyspell automatic spell checking. When I try to enable automatic spell checking (via the menu bar), I get the following error.

Starting new Ispell process aspell with english dictionary...
Error enabling Flyspell mode:
(Error: The file "/usr/local/lib/aspell-0.60/english" can not be opened 
for reading.)

A quick look at /usr/local/lib/aspell-0.60/ reveals that I have no English dictionary installed. More fully, here is what is installed:

 Lindsays-MacBook-Pro:lib ljs$ ls aspell-0.60/
 ccpp.amf cp1258.cset iso-8859-2.cmap nroff-filter.info
comment.amf dvorak.kbd iso-8859-2.cset nroff-filter.la
context-filter.info email-filter.info iso-8859-3.cmap nroff- 
filter.so
context-filter.la email-filter.la iso-8859-3.cset nroff.amf
context-filter.so email-filter.so iso-8859-4.cmap perl.amf
cp1250.cmap email.amf iso-8859-4.cset sgml-filter.info
cp1250.cset html-filter.info iso-8859-5.cmap sgml-filter.la
cp1251.cmap html.amf iso-8859-5.cset sgml-filter.so
cp1251.cset iso-8859-1.cmap iso-8859-6.cmap sgml.amf
cp1252.cmap iso-8859-1.cset iso-8859-6.cset spell
cp1252.cset iso-8859-10.cmap iso-8859-7.cmap split.kbd
cp1253.cmap iso-8859-10.cset iso-8859-7.cset standard.kbd 
cp1253.cset iso-8859-11.cmap iso-8859-8.cmap tex-filter.info
cp1254.cmap iso-8859-11.cset iso-8859-8.cset tex-filter.la
cp1254.cset iso-8859-13.cmap iso-8859-9.cmap tex-filter.so
cp1255.cmap iso-8859-13.cset iso-8859-9.cset tex.amf
cp1255.cset iso-8859-14.cmap ispell texinfo-filter.info
cp1256.cmap iso-8859-14.cset koi8-r.cmap texinfo-filter.la
cp1256.cset iso-8859-15.cmap koi8-r.cset texinfo-filter.so
cp1257.cmap iso-8859-15.cset koi8-u.cmap texinfo.amf
cp1257.cset iso-8859-16.cmap koi8-u.cset url.amf
cp1258.cmap iso-8859-16.cset none.amf

Any help greatly appreciated

Looks like you have a broken install of aspell. Assuming you used Homebrew to install it, just uninstall it, and reinstall it.

$ brew uninstall aspell
$ brew update
$ brew install aspell

If you're still having trouble, maybe comment out

(starter-kit-load "starter-kit-aspell.org")

from starter-kit.org so it looks like

;;(starter-kit-load "starter-kit-aspell.org")

This will prevent the starter-kit from loading its flycheck/aspell settings allowing you to use the defaults. You will have to manually enable flyspell on a buffer where you want to use it. Meta-x flyspell-mode will do the trick.