Knowledge on tap at the Genius Bar?

You don’t have to be Gwyneth Paltrow to want to love and protect your baby Apple.

Carl Sagan once said “they laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers, but they also laughed at Bozo the Clown,” suggesting that genius is an elite and hard to discern group.

Years later, in a seemingly unrelated story, after the first prolific seeds of Apple’s retail store was planted, CEO Steve Jobs and several colleagues flew to it’s D.C. location and moseyed up to the very first Genius Bar. It was described as being the place where perplexed Mac owners could pull up a stool, lean on the bar, and spill their woes to the nodding guru, or “genius.” With a smile, the genius, Apple said, will sort through technical problems and find an answer. And for truly baffling troubles, a red “hot line” phone, a concept borrowed from the Batman television series, connects the genius to higher-level geniuses at Apple’s headquarters.

However, a short four years later, the Apple retail stores have flourished but the “red hot lines” concept seems to have dried up leaving only the geniuses to guru up the solutions. Sure it’s free, but is the Genius Bar the smartest way to get Apple Care?

One Mac enthusiast chronicles the journey from sick Apple to resurrection.

Here’s her Genius Bar story…