Jon Kabat-Zinn went to Haverford College, a Quaker institution. This is the Haverford College Duck Pond by reuterslowdown on Flickr |
SEARCHING FOR 'JOHN CABOT ZINN'
Jon Kabat Zinn speaks at Google—more points for Google! |
Praise God for search engines that are
forgiving and whose admonishments, if
any, are well-mannered, even sweet andgentle. The unenlightened ones, if I am
looking for "John Cabot Zinn," a veryfeasible misspelling, give a response
that tells me someone needs her nap
because she's beastly, crabby, all
undone. She snarls (or else he
does), "Your search turned up not
even one result. What's wrong with
you?" And then he/she dissects your
personality and makes offensive
comments re your mom, your
parentage in general, and the
futility of your existence; and
infects your laptop with a virus
that's incurable.
A monument to Shays' Rebellion in western Massachusetts |
Now Google understands "John
Cabot Zinn" because it's logical;
and Google knows that many
of our intellectuals can't spell for
crap, and so, respectful of your
dignity, it simply takes you to
a list of URLs relating to "Jon
Kabat-Zinn" but doesn't simply
drop you there; with due
humility, it offers you an opportunity
to make a further search anent
"John Cabot Zinn," in case
that's what you really meant.
From Wikipedia, I'd hoped
for better. Faced with what I've
learned is nonexistent or
unmet in cyberspace, "John
Cabot Zinn," it takes the path
of least resistance; id. est:
The page "John cabot zinn" does notexist. You can ask for it to be created,but consider checking the search resultsbelow to see whether the topic is alreadycovered. For search help, please visit Help
"Lowell Mill Girls" was the name used for
female textile workers in the 19th century in
Lowell, Massachusetts —Wikipedia
...and then offers links to Shays'
Rebellion and the Lowell Mill
Girls, Anti-Union Violence,
and Christopher Columbus\—
none of which, I hardly need to
say, is pertinent. I'm very fond
of Wikipedia and wish it well,
but if you plan to search in
Wikipedia, you'd better learn
to spell.
So Google wins the prize--which
is my faithful, frequent use of it--for
patience, tact, and accuracy,
plus it's free, which matters
greatly to the poor, including me,
and also to the simply frugal; and I
wish, in this respect at least...
Gee, if they made me Supreme
World Queen, before
I did another thing, I'd issue
this command: Be More Like
Google.
Amen
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