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Quietly last winter, OCLC began beta testing a service called Open WorldCat, in which Google and Yahoo searches of authors and book titles would return a link to a page listing libraries near the searcher’s ZIP code [when the ZIP was entered by the searcher].

Longtime readers of this enterprise may recall a time when I wished aloud for exactly such a service. So I thought I was doing a good thing when I posted to Metafilter about this open beta test, but the way in which PageRank works has unintentionally made the page I created the number one hit for the phrase “find in a library” + either of the two authors I mentioned on that page, ahead of the WorldCat results to which I was trying to draw attention.

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Ten minutes from the end of the season finale of Six Feet Under and the cable, which has been hiccuping on the digital channels all day, finally gives out.

The helpline people are no help — they tell me to turn the box off before they send it one of their Magic Reset Signals — No end-of-Six-Feet-Under and no Entourage finale for me tonight. Possibly not until Tuesday between two and four o’clock, which is when they’re sending the guy out.

I almost admire their moxie when try to sell me on Showtime and Encore before ending the call. Sure, I might consider it, IF MY HBO FRICKIN’ WORKED.

I’m starting to think maybe there’s a reason why the cable company inserts all those commercials about how terrible satellite-TV is and what a mistake it would be to switch to it. Maybe satellite-TV is actually PRETTY GOOD.

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One morning last fall near the end of my work experience at the Ann Arbor library, a guy came in and I had to show him where workstation
9 was. His response was a sheepish smile and the explanation “I kicked drugs.”

I ended up using this phrase as an explanation for something in an email message to my director, I think it’s got legs.

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Thank Metafilter for introducing us to the Random Image page on UploadYourImages.com. Edited highlights:

• Prepare to be Boarded.
• Bondage Spiderman.
• Alyssa Milano. Not really funny.
• Drinking My Girlfriend.
• Britney Spears on crutches, which actually comes from TinyPic’s most-popular page.
• Buckle Up, Make It Loud, ditto.
• Buffy the Gas Price Payer and Smoothie Drinker.
• Bush, Chimp, Lynndie [I made this one]

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Opening this link from NSLog; and this link from Victor in the background, then wondering why Nintendo’s parental warning is accompanied by a medley of four letter words spoken in British accents.

I thought someone had hacked Nintendo’s page, then I thought maybe Nintendo had a weird sense of humor, then I realized that the audio from the first link, which, again, is a medley of four letter words in various British and American accents and as such is not work-safe, child-safe, or much-of-anyone-safe, was serving as an unintended soundtrack to the Nintendo page, despite them being in different windows.

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I think I speak for music fans throughout Australia when I say that
Buddy Guyhas is the greatest bluesman alive.

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Guardian UK: Supporters Plan Ronald Reagan University
[I’m not a British news freak, they just seem to have the least-intrusive advertising and I couldn’t find this article on myway.]

• Tragedy struck today at Reagan U. when a rogue Yamaha Razz scooter breached the campus’ white picket security fence, coming to a rest in the sandbox. No one was injured, but the driver was shaken and a sandcastle was decimated.
• Speaking of, ever flown into [or outta] Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport? Trust me, stick with Dulles.
• “Congratulations, Billy! Your GPA is 3.666… I mean, 3.668.”
• Not affiliated with the Ron Reagan School of Dance.

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“When the vice president and I are alone, it’s Colin and Dick,” he said.

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This is DellDudeSteven. I’m out of service at the moment, but will return to talk with you soon. Check out http://www.dell.com for more information on our products and services.

I will miss your automated AIM-bot Dell-marketing stylings. [snif]

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Lots of pix of various combinations of Hulk Hogan, Michael McDonald, and Hulk’s daughter Brooke — but although Michael and Brooke are both singers, they do not appear together. Get what I’m saying? THEY ARE BOTH SINGERS AND YOU DON’T SEE THEM TOGETHER.

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