I've been playing around with the buffers-tab face - currently it's:
'(buffers-tab ((t (:foreground "firebrick4" :background "gray60"
:size "10" :family "helvetica" :italic t))) t)
most of the time all the tab labels show up as firebrick4, but sometimes
some of the tabs show up as black rather than firebrick4, as shown below
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John A. Turner, Senior Research Associate
Blue Sky Studios, One South Rd, Harrison, NY 10528
http://www.blueskystudios.com/ (914) 825-8319