Uncaught TypeError: string is not a function on plugins with dialog

ok, so I dug deeper. I installed the uncompressed version so I could understand where the errors were.   the error is now in plugin.js  under the dialog plugin. line 2213 to be exact. 

this line was:

var nodeName = ( nodeNameArg.call ? nodeNameArg( elementDefinition ) : nodeNameArg ) || 'div',

to get around the error I was getting (string is not a function), I changed it to this: 

var nodeName = ( typeof nodeNameArg == "function" ? nodeNameArg( elementDefinition ) : nodeNameArg ) || 'div',

which got rid of my original error, but now the buttons in my dialog look wonky - the text in them is [object, object] so something unexpected is getting thrown around somewhere 

I'm using jquery UI and their dialogs, is there a conflict somewhere? 

further research shows me that it's another javascript library conflicting.  we're using clojure on the back end which puts a huge library JS file into our app (that has required functionality in it)

if I remove this script file, the editor works fine.   it's only 23,000 lines. wish me luck

argh. who edits the String prototype??? so sick of other people's code. and talking to myself. 

peace.