I finally got it to work.  Thank you, all you folks that sent me mail with
tips.

Data points for the next poor sap that is hunting through the mailing list
archives for clues:

I did the image creation and burn from Linux.
My SCSI TEAC CDR-55S drive made nothing but coasters.
I bought a USB Iomega ZIP-CD 650 and it worked fine on the first try.
My DC unit says it was manufactured in October of 2000 and it boots CD-Rs just
fine.

-- 
Gene McCulley            http://enki.org/~mcculley/