Abiword and xset don't work

[George Fischer <gfischer@visi.com>]

I'm new to GNU/Linux, and have just finished my first installation.  I
am running unstable because I want to use the newest version of gnucash.

I also want to use Abiword.  I used apt-get to install the latest
version, but when I try to run it I get an error that it cannot find the
Times New Roman font.  I have found that other people have gotten this
error (as in the bug report) but I have not found a way to fix it ("your
installation must be hosed" isn't helping).

I checked the directory
/usr/shared/abisuite/fonts
and it has the font files in it, as well as fonts.dir.

I used 'which' to make sure that I am calling the script.  I am.  

I looked at the script and some man pages to see how it was appending
the directory to the font path, and then tried

$ xset fp+ /usr/shared/abisuite/fonts

in a terminal, and I got:

X Error of failed request:  86
  Major opcode of failed request:  51 (X_SetFontPath)
  Serial number of failed request:  9
  Current serial number in output stream:  11

I have no clue what that might mean, but it is the same error I get when
I put in a path that does not exist.

Any hints?