Two Cheers For Google
Jan. 21st, 2006 12:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloHey I'm 55.
I was going to write that I've now outlived Shakespeare, but I find I was wrong in thinking he died at 54. In fact he died at 52- so I've now outlived him by three years. I tried Googling "people who died at 54" in search of other celebs I could crow over, but I didn't get any usable results. Did I want to know about "Famous people who died in air crashes"?
Actually, no.
Google hasn't had a good day. Earlier I wanted it to tell me about Ausburg- the town in Bavaria (I'm thinking Purchas might drop by sometime) and it was very parsimonious. I was offered information on American citizens called Ausburg and some American towns called Ausburg and the diary of an American soldier who was once stationed in Ausburg. ("Beaucoup women hereabout" he tells us- what a lovely, perceptive man) but substantial inside dope on one of the loveliest cities in Southern Germany- No.
Gosh, I may be forced to consult those awkward, cumbersome, out-of-date things called "books".
But I do now know the Roman name. Augusta Vindelicum. It's better than nothing.
But we mustn't knock Google. They're standing up to Bush. They're not going to let him know I've been wanting to find out about Ausburg or people who kicked the bucket at 54.
My heroes! (Google, that is- not the middle-aged deaders.)
I was going to write that I've now outlived Shakespeare, but I find I was wrong in thinking he died at 54. In fact he died at 52- so I've now outlived him by three years. I tried Googling "people who died at 54" in search of other celebs I could crow over, but I didn't get any usable results. Did I want to know about "Famous people who died in air crashes"?
Actually, no.
Google hasn't had a good day. Earlier I wanted it to tell me about Ausburg- the town in Bavaria (I'm thinking Purchas might drop by sometime) and it was very parsimonious. I was offered information on American citizens called Ausburg and some American towns called Ausburg and the diary of an American soldier who was once stationed in Ausburg. ("Beaucoup women hereabout" he tells us- what a lovely, perceptive man) but substantial inside dope on one of the loveliest cities in Southern Germany- No.
Gosh, I may be forced to consult those awkward, cumbersome, out-of-date things called "books".
But I do now know the Roman name. Augusta Vindelicum. It's better than nothing.
But we mustn't knock Google. They're standing up to Bush. They're not going to let him know I've been wanting to find out about Ausburg or people who kicked the bucket at 54.
My heroes! (Google, that is- not the middle-aged deaders.)
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Date: 2006-01-21 05:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 05:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 05:42 am (UTC)I turned 28 on mine, which was a relief - 27's the age all the rockers die :) Jimi, Janis, Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison... Dead Or Alive tells me that Marc Bolan didn't die till he was 29, though. I just got so lost in that site!
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Date: 2006-01-21 05:55 am (UTC)I just read in the NY Times that Vladimir Lenin died on this date... and guess what? He was 54!
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Date: 2006-01-21 05:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 06:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 06:17 am (UTC)You have reached the most popular speed limit around here. SORRY KID but you can't go any faster! ;-)
I'll be 59 on March 21. You have not outlived ME! ;-)
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Date: 2006-01-21 06:17 am (UTC)That could explain a lot.
The splendid thing is there actually were a few mis-spelt sites out there.
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Date: 2006-01-21 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 06:19 am (UTC)What an useful site.
Bolan lived to be that old! I'm surprised.
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Date: 2006-01-21 06:20 am (UTC)I've oulived Lenin!
Yeah!
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Date: 2006-01-21 06:23 am (UTC)I find it curiously soothing to consider all the celebs who didn't make it to my current age. I don't quite know why. Maybe it's because, OK, they got to be famous and all that but here's one area in which I've beaten them.
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Date: 2006-01-21 06:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 06:24 am (UTC)I've eaten TWO cherry bakewells to celebrate.
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Date: 2006-01-21 06:32 am (UTC)So I tried a quick web search for people who only made it to 54 ... the best I could come up with was Robert Palmer. (Oh, and John Ritter -- do non-Americans even know who he was?)
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Date: 2006-01-21 07:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 07:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 08:04 am (UTC)As somebody already mentioned, it is Augsburg. And if you need some help on it, I have been there several times and know it quite well, I even have relatives who have been living there for many centuries, among which one who has been burned as a witch around 1480...
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Date: 2006-01-21 08:20 am (UTC)John Ritter- I feel I ought to, but...no...it escapes me.
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Date: 2006-01-21 08:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 08:25 am (UTC)They were burning witches there in the 1480s?
This I need to know more about.
A whole new plot line suggests itself.
I chose the name at random. I Googled a list of Bavarian towns and Augsburg was at the top. I got lucky with Orvieto. Seems like I could have got lucky with Augsburg too!
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Date: 2006-01-21 08:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 08:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 08:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 08:58 am (UTC)