Esteemed Forum Participants and Lurkers:
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EDIT:  I have to make sure I disconnect the Ethernet cable when testing the WiFi ... DUH
I've made some progress in the last few hours ... I discovered I wasn't at the latest release, so I downloaded and burned it:
    debian/debian-mate-jessie-20160501-lenny.raposo-longsleep-pine64-8GB.zip
It looks ok so far, and now I have wlan device
s - yes, 
TWO of them - 
wlan0 and 
wlan1:
Code:
# iwconfig
eth0      no wireless extensions.
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=12 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:on
          
sit0      no wireless extensions.
lo        no wireless extensions.
wlan1     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any  
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=12 dBm   
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:on
# ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 7a:6e:63:ac:21:f1  
          inet addr:192.168.1.104  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::786e:63ff:feac:21f1/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:83 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:104 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:9542 (9.3 KiB)  TX bytes:14007 (13.6 KiB)
          Interrupt:114 
lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
          RX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:240 (240.0 B)  TX bytes:240 (240.0 B)
wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 34:c3:d2:7b:45:0c  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
wlan1     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 36:c3:d2:7b:45:0c  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
I certainly did NOT expect TWO of them, so now I'm at a loss as to where to go from here.  The MAC address for the 'real' device has to be entered into my router Access List, and I have to connect to my wireless network.
EDIT:  When I click on the network icon (top right of screen) I see the available networks, but I don't get a 
connection???
Thank you for any and all comments, suggestions, and assistance.
Blessings in abundance, all the best, & ENJOY!
Art in Carlisle, PA USA