Wanted to post a follow-up. Thanks for taking the interest and time to prod me along with this subject.....or, as I like to say "grappling with the flawed technology".
The solution was as simple as commandeering my wife's HP laptop (window based). Everything works fine with that. Never dawned on me to try that approach. Hard to get "time" on that unit, anyway...
Haven't put Firefox on the Apple, yet. Since it works fine for Deseasel, and his Mac, should also be a good "fix" for me.
Thanks a bunch, guys. Big help (old guy, NOT computer savvy. Especially across different platforms). It's really great having access to some official MB documentation!!