Life is good- poked around on the web some more and found a reference on 
corrupt source index files.  Deleted the old cache and the old gem 
worked better (didn't croak on a method not found error) but still did 
not pick up remote server things.  Deleted the old gem and the new 
install worked and picked up everything it should.  I am now happy. 
Thank you for the help.  Am getting rid of the pre-installed ruby on my 
Mac and using my new one now.

> 
> OK, so it's not an outdated one like the 1.6 things still around. I 
> don't have a Mac to test things out here (I'm running on Ubuntu Linux), 
> but for me the installation progress works. I downloaded Ruby 1.9.7-p249 
> from ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org , compiled and installed it, and after 
> downloading RubyGems 1.3.6 from http://rubygems.org I ran ruby setup.rb, 
> everything without any compilation options beside a --prefix to Ruby's 
> configure since I already have a Ruby installation.
> 
> Sorry I can't help you. Maybe someone with a Mac to test can. :(
> 
> Marvin

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.