You would call the public library. Some people still do. (And we use the Googles and answer them.)
Inara: So, explain to me again why Zoe wasn't in the dress? Mal: Tactics, woman. Needed her in the back. 'Sides, those soft cotton dresses feel kinda nice. It's the whole... air-flow.
'Our Mrs. Reynolds'
Natter 72: We Were Unprepared for This
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
flea - Dec 04, 2013 10:46:09 am PST #13703 of 30000
information libertarian
shrift - Dec 04, 2013 10:56:02 am PST #13704 of 30000
"You can't put a price on the joy of not giving a shit." -Zenkitty
This is true! I remember when calling a telephone number for the time was a thing people.
tommyrot - Dec 04, 2013 11:03:29 am PST #13705 of 30000
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
Every so often I'm googling something and I wonder how in the hell I could have gotten the info I wanted in the days before the internet.
Calli - Dec 04, 2013 11:10:03 am PST #13706 of 30000
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs
Yeah, back then bar bets meant something other than who could get to IMDB the fastest.
Amy - Dec 04, 2013 11:12:50 am PST #13707 of 30000
Because books.
I was just thinking the other day about how I used to buy Leonard Maltin's movie encyclopedia when it was on sale. I loved that thing.
Zenkitty - Dec 04, 2013 12:16:21 pm PST #13708 of 30000
Every now and then, I think I might actually be a little odd.
Google would have been handy in an argument I still remember from high school, that began when a boy informed me that Klaatu was the name of the robot. How did I survive before I had the sum of human knowledge in my small handheld computer?
Hil R. - Dec 04, 2013 12:16:53 pm PST #13709 of 30000
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l
I went for a pulmonary function test today. I had to breathe into a machine (which charted stuff on a computer monitor, which was pretty cool), then use an inhaler, then breathe into the machine again. I like that inhaler, whatever it was. I'm still having an "Oh, so THAT'S how lungs are supposed to work" moment.
Jesse - Dec 04, 2013 12:23:35 pm PST #13710 of 30000
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
I was just thinking the other day about how I used to buy Leonard Maltin's movie encyclopedia when it was on sale. I loved that thing.
My mother still buys it! If not every year, many years.
amych - Dec 04, 2013 12:36:14 pm PST #13711 of 30000
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?
I was just thinking the other day about how I used to buy Leonard Maltin's movie encyclopedia when it was on sale.
Yes! For ages I used to buy one every 3-4 years and absolutely wear it out until it was time for the next one and some more recent movies. So much fun to flip around at random (and find connections, and make lists, and hunt for the great or horrible stuff...). IMDB, Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes, et al have so much more when it comes to looking up a specific film, but that kind of browsability just isn't the same without a big fat book on the coffee table.
Connie Neil - Dec 04, 2013 12:39:03 pm PST #13712 of 30000
brillig
The lack of random discovery is a big downside to computerized catalogs of all sorts. I've dealt with libraries who have forgotten they even have a certain book because the keyword search in their computerized catalog doesn't pick up said book. In a card catalog, though, you could go to a category and flip randomly. The library bought a new copy, then discovered they already had it when they went to put it on the shelf.
Though it makes it very easy to hide things.