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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Connie, yes -- same reason I hate doing any kind of research in closed-stack libraries (even though I understand the need for things like special collections). I want to get to my book and *also* see what else is around it that I didn't think to look up (or didn't succeed in searching for quite right).

I have no memory of waking up during my colonoscopy, because basically they roofied me. I literally don't remember putting my clothes back on, afterward. I still maintain I could have made my way home on my own, given that I managed all the zippers and buttons correctly.

I want to get to my book and *also* see what else is around it that I didn't think to look up

This, totally.

Yeah, I used to just get lost thumbing through it. Although IMdB is a tempting rabbit hole for me, too.