flash drive not recognized

I have a brand new Mac Book Pro (and several other computers - mac & pc). The new mac book does not recognize flash drives that work fine on all my other computers (mac mini, imac, 2 PCs). The disk utility on the new machine doesn't see external drives either. The USB ports on the new machine work fine with mice, phone, cameras, etc but it cannot see flash drives. Any ideas?

Forgive me, a quick sidebar rant... Getting this new computer up to speed has been a Windows-like, head-bashing, hair-pullin nightmare! I loved my first few Apples because they just worked. Increasingly, I find Windows easier to use. Would someone ask Apple to stop with the constant updates that provide no value and continuously "fix" things that work just fine?