Thank you, Al Gore

I love the internet.

Al Gore invented it, you know. At least according to this Snickers commercial.

Well, okay, maybe not invented. In a 1999 interview with CNN, he stated that "he took the initiative in creating the internet." His apologists and actual inventors, Vint Cerf and Bill Kahn, claimed that Gore meant to highlight his legislative support, not actual invention. So says some AI-generated hoobob on the internet.

As our kids were growing up, they would often ask questions which resulted in the singular response, "Look it up." Not a popular response by any means, but they did learn to use a dictionary and other, non-internet sources.

But today they are happily living their own lives, and I get to look things up. When my husband and I are enjoying our morning beverages, we often have wide-ranging conversations that involve looking things up.

This morning I was telling him that our 92-year-old neighbor was considering nonrenewal of her Y membership where she likes to swim and use the sauna. Apparently the sauna is now co-ed and down a hall and just not the same. Since neither of us had ever been in a sauna, I had to look up how one works. Oof! Too hot for me! Then we were discussing the St. Louis Cardinals and its penny-pinching ownership. So I looked up the net worth of MLB owners. Yeah, they're rich. The topic turned to the closing of the small Catholic church we attend and the permitted sale of the building "for secular but not sordid use." Had to look up that phraseology as well. It pretty much means exactly what it says.

If we are streaming music, I have my Beatfind app at the ready to settle any song/artist questions or disputes. I check the Shipfind app to see if any barges are on their way down or upriver and will soon be going through the nearby locks. Which I can watch in real-time on the internet! Or I can find a commercial from the year 2000 and share it with you.

You get the picture. As much as there is that is not so great, there is exponentially more that is great about the times we live in. You can look it up!

Ooh! I have a taste for homemade caramels. Need to look up a recipe. (See what I did there?)