The docstrings of display-time-world-list say "Alist" whereas if I'm not mistaken the entries are lists, not pairs. Perhaps the docstrings could say just "list" so nobody tries to add to them as an alist. (Doing so causes an error from M-x display-time-world.) 2010-07-16 Kevin Ryde * time.el (zoneinfo-style-world-list, legacy-style-world-list, display-time-world-list): In the docstrings say plain "list" not alist, as the list elements are not pairs (but lists). (display-time-world-display): Rename parameter from `alist' to `world-list' as it's not an alist as such.