I am trying to use remove to remove an item from a list and return the remainder of the list.  I don't understand why this works: 

         (let* ((;; my-button (intern  (concatenate 'string "btn-" "b") ) )
                 (my-button btn-b)
                  (list-buttons  (list btn-a btn-b btn-z)))
                (setf (text notifications) (remove my-button list-buttons)))

But this does not: 
               
         (let* ((my-button (intern  (concatenate 'string "btn-" "b") ) )
                ;; (my-button btn-b)
                (list-buttons  (list btn-a btn-b btn-z)))
           (setf (text notifications) (remove my-button list-buttons)))
               
And neither does this:
               
         (let* ((my-button (intern  (concatenate 'string "btn-" "b") (in-package :mypackagename) ) )
                ;; (my-button btn-b)
                (list-buttons  (list btn-a btn-b btn-z)))
           (setf (text notifications) (remove my-button list-buttons)))             

Isn't intern supposed to change the string into an object?  The reason I am trying to use the second example is because I am trying to us the let form in a defun and pass in a letter (a, b, c .... z) and the construction btn-a, btn-b, etc.  and then have remove do the check for equality, remove the item and return the sub-list.

What am I not understanding?