The Genius Bar and Other Joints

I became a Macintosh devotee’ about 12 years ago. I started with a Blueberry iMac, picked up a couple eMacs along the way (cheap and suitable for specific needs)and eventually purchased a MacBook and the newer version of the iMac. Six weeks ago I left my very-used, 6 year old MacBook on our back deck as I raced in to witness the ‘puck drop‘ on one of The Predators 2nd-round playoff games against the Canucks. About 30 minutes later The Preds were well on their way to a loss and my MacBook - laying wide open on a deck table - was drowning in an unexpected downpour. With a towel, hair dryer and great patience I did everything I could to minimize the damage. Nonetheless, it would not boot up. I walked to another room and booked the first appointment for the next morning at The Genius Bar in our local Apple store. This would not be my first visit there; nor would it be my last.

The wise and polite young man I met the next day removed the hard drive and instructed me to go buy an enclosure and, with luck, he stated, I could probably capture most of my data. He was right. I was happy. I grabbed the rather large collection of stuff and dumped it onto an external hard drive.

Last week, while taking a brief sojourn to Georgia’s beautiful and rugged Atlantic coast, my home in Nashville, TN was visited by the remains of the awful storms that ravaged Joplin, MO and other midwestern towns. 135 human beings lost their lives; I just lost an iMac to a strike of lightning. Why would I even mention it? Well, I think I have a good idea: I believe that Apple, Inc. should consider hanging a sign on both sides of the Help Desks within their retail stores: They should definitely stick with ‘The Genius Bar‘ on the employee side and then I’d suggest something like ‘The Ignorant Son-of-a-Bitch Desk,' 'The Stupid Bastard Corner' or 'The Dipshit Bar' for their customers ' customers like me, at least.