NSURLConnection *c = [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url]
                                                     delegate:self
                                             startImmediately:NO];

Apparently when not using the simpler initWithRequest:delegate:, or even startImmediately:YES, the connection does not get scheduled in the current run loop. And again apparently, this causes unhappiness to occur when you eventually get around to calling start.

Simple fix, just stuff it in the current run loop before calling start and everyone gets along just fine.

[c scheduleInRunLoop:[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop] forMode:NSDefaultRunLoopMode];
[c start];

If there is something I am doing wrong or something I can do to prevent this, I’d like to know. Alas, the API is fairly brief on NSURLConnection, I don’t think I’m missing anything. This seems consistent with Cocoa, Cocoa Touch.