May 2, 2009

What have you Googled lately?

I find that I can't have a conversation these days without saying "I think I will Google that!" It is really an addiction of sorts. I know it irritates some people, but I have always had a natural curiosity about things in general. I think it stems from dinner conversations when my inquiries were always answered by my Dad saying "Look it up." It often resulted in me going to fetch a dictionary or a volume of our Encyclopedia and bringing it back to the table.


And I LOVED our set of 1956 World Book Encyclopedia! What kid from back in the 50s didn't know how to spell Encyclopedia,albeit to a tune, thanks to Jimminy Cricket. And we just loved them. The Red leather bound books with blue trim and gold lettering on the binding, lined up on the bottom shelf where we could easily reach them.


I loved putting them back in order after someone, (probably Chuck) messed them up, haphazardly returning them and putting the M book after the N-O. (I think M may have been the fattest volume.) I just loved the heft of them. We used them to prop things up, to press flowers, to stand on to reach things. But mostly we used them like they were supposed to be used. To look things up.

The D book was my favorite, though. It was seldom in its place on the bookshelf since I would often bring it to my room. I loved the dog section. I memorized all the breeds and fantacized about owning Dandy Dinmonts and Miniature Pinschers and miniature King Charles Spaniels.






I loved the little ones.
Turns out as I got older I realized I am really a cat person.
I guess I should have been looking at the C book.

But also in the D book was "Dress". There were lovely colored pictures of clothing from the earliest Greek dress to the current (1950s) styles. Fascinating drawings of ancient Egyptians and 1920s flappers. I could look at those pictures forever as a kid.

I had that set of World Books while my kids were growing up, too. They actually used them in some of their school research, pre-Internet kids that they were. In fact, it wasn't that long ago that we discarded these 1956 Encyclopedia. Understand that there was no reference to walking on the moon, PCs, cell phones or a million other things that we take for granted these days. But they still had loads of information in them. I had an attachment to those volumes which was difficult to break, so it wasn't until I moved in 2006 that I finally discarded them. Fifty years after they became a cherished part of my childhood, I finally let go. But, if it wasn't for Google, they may have made the move to TN right along with me.

So, what have I Googled today? Red Yeast Rice, a supplement reccommended by my primary care physician to help lower cholesteral, before putting me on any meds.
I found out the FDA re-defined it as a drug and removed the active cholesterol lowering ingrediant so it really doesn't work anymore. Cross that off the list and let my doc know she has old info.



I also Google Imaged the pictures for this blog. And, wide dress shoes for Ed.

And I Googled GAR and WRC, initials referred to in genealogy research I am doing. Incidentally,
GAR is the Grand Army of the Republic and WRC is the Women's Relief Corps, auxilliary to the GAR.

I Googled a town where our niece just moved to, Lower Gwynedd and found out it means White Field in Welsh which they called it because of the snow covered land that they first saw when William Penn and his "friends" settled the area. Cool stuff.

So, I am now addicted to Google.Maybe I should start a 12 step program for Googler's Anonymous.
But I use it every day, all day. It may not be lined up nicely on my bookshelf and I can't run my hand over the shiny cool pages of dog pictures. But, in many ways, knowing it's always there is just as satisfying. There's just so much out there to learn. I love it!


Have a Google Day!
Love,
Suz