Why don't you come up and Google me sometime?
Sorry, Mae West. It was just too good a line not to mangle.
I got an email from a former Ozark Gazette writer (now living Texas) this past weekend, who had tracked me down using one of those reunion-type services on the Internet. This sort of thing always kind of reminds me of the old radio show “Mr. Keen, Finder of Lost Persons,” - later retooled into the NBC series, “Finder of Lost Loves.”
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/keen.html
The mind that refuses to embrace trivia refuses to embrace life.
But to get back to our story. What an amazing thing, I thought, that I could be found so easily like this. Of course, I’ve used the Internet myself to find people. A few years ago I managed to track down members of my old High School class (I went to school on a series of military bases), and even found some German friends that I spent a week in London with in 1972, that I had lost contact with over 20 years ago.
Others have found me in similar ways.
We leave traces of ourselves all over the place. Just go to Google (or whatever search engine is your favorite) and type in not your name, but your email address, and see what what pops up. If you have spent any time in the public eye, you have probably left quite an electronic paper trail, often without even realizing it.
And it’s not just your email address, my friends. Now, type in your phone number, area code and all. Kinda spooky, aint it?
Sometimes, if you have written a letter to the editor, your contact information (at least your email address) is on the paper’s website. If you have written something that others pick up and have on their sites, your information may be there, as well.
Personally, I’m really happy with all of this. Like many, I have been reunited with old friends that I never expected to hear from again, all without having to go to a modern-day Mr. Keen.
But if you are paranoid, or belong to the Black Helicopter crowd, well, maybe you should just communicate through the U.S. Mail or cave drawings; you’ll feel safer that way.
******
Hey, Kids - Space Age Materials!
Watching television the other night, some one was hawking a product - “Not available in stores!” - and he announced proudly that it was made of “Space-Age materials.”
“Wait a minute,” I laughed at the TV.” It’s 2008. Isn’t everything today made out of ‘space-age materials?’?”
Still, just knowing that I’m using space-age materials is going to make changing the cat-box this afternoon a whole lot more exciting.
*****
Obviously my morals aren’t the same as your morals.
A couple of years ago I took part in a roundtable discussion on Fayetteville’s Government Channel, entitled “Why the Controversy about C.A.T. Programming.” It airs once again on C.A.T. this week.
The Usual Suspects were there, supporting public access, but there were also a few folk who who found no use for it all.
They included a conservative Christian talk-radio host, a former mayor’s wife, an employee of Jones TV (who was just representing herself, and not the Cox-supported channel) and a fellow who had written several letters to the editor critical of anything he ever saw on C.A.T.
Among the nuggets of conversation that evening:
Fayetteville’s dedication to diversity was criticized.
The accusation was made that there had been programs aired on C.A.T. that actually showed viewers how to kill people - this from a person who also admitted that they never actually watched the channel.
And my personal favorite:
“Obviously my morals aren’t the same as your morals.”
A good time was had by all.
Friday -9:35pm - Community Access Television (Channel 18 in Fayetteville)
rsdrake@nwark.com
