Jody Ewing

Iowa Author

Jody Ewing

No Tiger in this Mac’s Tank

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In all the years I’ve owned a Macintosh computer (which is all the years I’ve ever owned a computer), I’ve never once been disappointed by Apple’s products or their service.

Until now.

Let me first say that despite my preference for Macs to PCs, I’ve never been a Chevy/Ford Mac/PC person who bashed one or the other. I simply prefer Macs to PCs. And like many Mac users, I eagerly anticipated the release of “Tiger,” Mac’s newest and (supposedly) biggest and brightest upgrade. I’m guessing it probably is. I’m beginning to wonder when I’ll finally find out.

The very day Apple announced that one could “pre-order” Tiger (two weeks before its release on April 29), I did exactly that. Got out the old credit card, made sure my name was on the list. They guaranteed it’d be in my mailbox April 29. And it was. The problem?

You can’t “buy” Tiger on CD. It only ships in DVD format. I bought my G4 several years ago, and looking back, realize I “should” have had the DVD drive installed. But before pre-ordering Tiger, I’d read through the “System Requirements” listed on their website, and never once did it say a DVD drive would be required for the software’s installation. (They have since added that.)

Okay. So Apple “does” provide a solution to the DVD problem. AFTER one receives the DVD, they can download a document from Apple’s website through their (aptly titled) Mac OSX 10.4 Tiger Media Exchange Program. I did. Then, you print out the form, fill in your info, and mail it in, along with an additional 10 bucks ($9.95 plus applicable sales tax), the original Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger install DVD, and one original software proof-of-purchase coupon (found in the Tiger software box). Once they receive that, they say Apple will mail you a Tiger CD kit.

According to the Tiger Media Exchange document, it says: “Upon receipt of your order, products from inventory in stock will be shipped within 24 hours via U.S. mail.”

Great! (I thought.) You mail everything to South Bend, Indiana – only two states away from Iowa. And I’m getting mine into the mail right away, so I’ll have Tiger in my Mac’s tank within a few days. (I thought.)

I waited a week. Nothing. Two weeks. Nothing. Finally I called Apple’s toll free number (888-840-8433) listed on the Media Exchange document. After listening to the menu and pressing the appropriate keys, a message directed me to a specific website where I could check the status of my order. (Inquiry Site)

Here, they ask you for your name, zip code, and other pertinent info. Then you hit “Check Status.” What? It’s not working? You’re getting the message “Safari Can’t Open the Page”? Let me save you some trouble.

Okay. So Safari couldn’t open the page. I went to Firefox.
Firefox couldn’t open the page. I went to Mozilla.
Mozilla couldn’t open the page. I went to Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer couldn’t open the page. I went to Netscape.
Netscape couldn’t open the page.

I ran out of browsers.

Only after “repeated” efforts (and I do mean Repeated — to the tune of about 100 tries during different time periods) did Safari finally open the page the other day. Luckily, I discovered that Apple had, in fact, received my order. But there were the dreaded words under order status: Backordered.

So here it is, three weeks to the day since first receiving the Tiger DVD, and nearly three weeks since paying even more and ordering the CD kit. I’ve gone back to the site several times to check my status again, but haven’t been able to load the page since. I guess I’m probably one of the lucky ones, to have gotten it to load even that one time. I suspect it’s busy all the time with people like me, wondering why Apple just didn’t offer a product up front available for purchase in either DVD or CD format, and save their loyal customers the hassle they currently are putting them through.

The irony in all this is that Apple makes such a good product (like my G4) that – other than the software upgrades – I’ve never had a reason to upgrade my hardware. I’ve never missed the DVD drive.

Until now.

But I don’t have a product I’ve long since shelled out my money for, and twice at that. For a company who’s always had exemplary service, this apple fell far from the tree.

Nothing good about this “Good Old Country Boy”

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Though one church member referred to him as a “wonderful, good old country boy,” I see nothing good about a church pastor who ousts his own congregational members for their democratic political beliefs. (CNN.com – Pastor tries to calm waters over political oustings – May 8, 2005)

The Rev. Chan Chandler from the East Waynesville (N.C.) Baptist Church may have issued a statement (through his attorney, no less) saying the “church” doesn’t care about its members’ political affiliations, but that doesn’t say much for this reverand’s “personal” beliefs.

One has to wonder what kinds of “sermons” this man has been preaching over the course of the years. He says he’s invited all church members to attend a “business” meeting on Tuesday, and expects it all to be “cleared up” by the end of the week. Is he kidding? And does that mean that only church members will be allowed to attend? I have a feeling this is one meeting that certainly won’t be business as usual.

Another First for Iowa Writer’s Workshop

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Frank Conroy would have been pleased. The former University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop director taught Lan Samantha Chang to take the teaching of writing very seriously, and she has. Chang now succeeds Conroy — who died earlier this month from cancer at age 69 — as director of the famed workshop.

Chang, a Harvard University professor and award-winning fiction author, is the first female and the first Asian-American to head up the program, whose alumni include Flannery O’Connor and John Irving and whose current instructors include Pulitzer prize-winners Marilynne Robinson and James Alan McPherson.

Congratulations to Ms. Chang!

McMurtry’s ‘Booked Up’ Comes to Close

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Though I try to stay on top all things McMurtry, I discovered just today that my all-time favorite novelist – Larry McMurtry – will close his last Booked Up bookstore (in Archer City, Texas) at this year’s end. According to a March 8 article in the Albuquerque Journal, McMurtry first announced the closing Feb. 1 by posting a letter on his store windows. He says he wants to travel and work on other books, and, of course, there’s nothing I’d love more than to have him write more books.

Still, in all honesty, I am devastated. You know how we all have our list of “things to do” — eventually? Visiting Booked Up in Archer City has been on my list for quite some time, and I’ve suddenly realized I’ve got to move it up — and fast. No more putting off getting new tires for the Durango. You see, like McMurtry, I like to drive, and it won’t be the first time I took a long trip that had McMurtry waiting at the other end.

On Sept. 29, 1994, my daughter and I made a 7-hour trip from my Iowa hometown to Minnetonka, Minnesota. Larry and his longtime companion, Diana Ossana, were signing copies there of the just-released “Pretty Boy Floyd,” which they had co-written. In addition to dragging my daughter along, I hauled two large book bags full of all my McMurtry books (no duplicate copies) that I hoped he’d sign. (Which he graciously did.)

I’ll never forget sitting in the front row, directly facing my favorite Pulitzer prize-winning author, and asking him questions about his very first book signing and his rancher uncles. He had a much softer voice than I anticipated, and an easy smile as he recalled that first signing and an uncle’s unexpected appearance.

I still have the photos I took at the signing, including one of me with Larry that hangs on my wall above my writing desk. Over the years, I’ve interviewed many authors, some of whom have become good friends. Yet nothing has quite ever compared to the day I met Larry McMurtry. Augustus McCrae and Woodrow F. Call remain my two favorite characters from fiction, though Emma Horton and Aurora Greenway run a close second.

If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading a McMurtry novel, it’s time to get started. Lonesome Dove, Terms of Endearment, Somebody’s Darling, and All My Friends are Going to Be Strangers are just to name a few. Then, book on up or down to Archer City’s Booked Up before it’s too late. I hope to see you there.

Goodbye, Johnny

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I join the rest of the world today in mourning the loss of the beloved Johnny Carson. And yes, I was one of those 50 million who watched his last episode and hated to say goodbye, even then. There never will be another Johnny Carson. That look. Those eyes. That stare that said it all. He made us laugh for decades, but today he makes us cry.

I always felt proud to consider Johnny a “neighbor.” In Iowa one can get away with that sort of reasoning. After all, he was born just southeast of me, only a two-hour drive from my Onawa birthplace to his in Corning. And he grew up even closer, just across the river in Norfolk, Nebraska. I couldn’t attend a Norfolk trapshoot without thinking of Johnny.

When he established the Carson Regional Cancer Center there in 1988, I’d just begun working as a correspondent for the Sioux City Journal. Though he dedicated the treatment center in memory of his parents, Siouxlander’s in this tri-state region also were reminded how much he loved his native boyhood home. The facility – the first of its kind in the surrounding area – made it possible for patients to get treatment close to home at a time when it most mattered.

But, that was Johnny. It was the neighborly thing to do.

We’ll miss you here, Johnny. Some will thank you for all the laughs. Others will thank you for their careers. And many will thank you for their lives. You were the best kind of neighbor.

Jody