Google grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.
Or maybe what we really need: The serenity to walk slower, the courage to wear bug spray and the wisdom to keep our personal shit under control.
When I started this search I wasn’t prepared for such a striking contrast between issues of great import and cooking marginally exotic vegetables.
I’m certainly no expert on any of this stuff, but I’m pretty sure that for the first and the last queries Step One is the same: Bend over.
Some good questions, here:
Another might be: Since when do people Google Fran Drescher?
Well, it turns out Since When is Fran Drescher Jewish? is the name of a book by Chiara Francesca Ferrari, an Assistant Professor of Communication Design at California State University that looks at the cross-Atlantic cultural translations of three major American TV exports, The Simpsons, The Sopranos and, of all things, The Nanny.
“Since when is Fran Drescher Jewish?” This was Chiara Francesca Ferrari’s reaction when she learned that Drescher’s character on the television sitcom The Nanny was meant to be a portrayal of a stereotypical Jewish-American princess. Ferrari had only seen the Italian version of the show, in which the protagonist was dubbed into an exotic, eccentric Italian-American nanny. Since When Is Fran Drescher Jewish? explores this “ventriloquism” as not only a textual and cultural transfer between languages but also as an industrial practice that helps the media industry foster identification among varying audiences around the globe.
At the heart of this study is an in-depth exploration of three shows that moved from global to local, mapping stereotypes from both sides of the Atlantic in the process. Presented in Italy, for example, Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons is no longer a belligerent, alcoholic Scotsman but instead easily becomes a primitive figure from Sardinia.
Sardinia!
It’s pretty easy to take our prejudices for granted. Like the way I consistently offend my Japanese friend for a split second before he remembers that I grew up disdaining Jewish American Princesses. Or how mocking their accents really falls flat at a dinner table in Delhi.
At least we can count on people thinking the French are assholes. Am I right?
Posted in Google Game
Tagged assholes, fran drescher, Google Game, predjudice, stereotypes
I stumbled upon this by accident, but since “get” got me here, I’m using this Google Game as an excuse to show you my favorite comic strip, Get Fuzzy.
Check out Comics.com to enjoy the day-to-day hilarity of Bostonian Rob Wilco, his feisty cat, Bucky, and sweetly dim dog, Satchel. I get it emailed to me for free every morning. It’s a day-brightener. Click on for a few goodies. Continue reading
I swear: I wasn’t even trying to go the Jew route with this one. It just happened.
I really want to focus on other results here — like what the internet can tell you about flies being annoying that you can’t tell from, you know, flies, or why so many people want to know how to say “so annoying” in Japanese — but I just can’t resist. Just. Can’t. Resist… Continue reading
Hold the phone. Hold the freaking phone. A Google Game that generated pleasant surprise instead of soul-withering disappointment in humanity? Get out.
Cool games? Cool fonts? Cool websites? It’s what the internet is supposed to be about! Cool words and cool math games? I couldn’t be happier. Seeing those results puts me in such a good mood I don’t even feel like making fun of the people searching for cool quotes.
Posted in Google Game
Tagged cool, cool hunting, cool math games, Google Game, google suggest, word games
What I like about this set of Google suggestions is that it demonstrates some genuine, if misguided, attempts at self-edification.
I’m not quite sure why people are trying to find out what the most important languages are — can a language be unimportant? — and I don’t think that Catalogs.com’s list of history’s 10 most important people would have been my choice for top search result, but at least folks are trying, right?
Not long ago met a guy, a recent college graduate (well, it was art school), who has never read a novel. I was happy to guide him in the direction of a few potential first books, weighing his personality and interests, and managing to resist berating him mercilessly for his inexcusable illiteracy. I hope I make a lifetime reader out of him. Or at least that he reads one thing that’s not some highminded po-mo criticism bullshit. And I sincerely hope that some Google searching for most important books will lead to other hopeless illiterates picking up a volume or two. Maybe that’s a stretch, but at least “Most Important Websites” hasn’t made it to the top 10 yet.
Posted in Google Game
Tagged books, Google Game, google suggest, literacy, most important
I think it’s safe to say: If you have to ask, the answer is no.
…or at the very least, it can be assumed that those who are searching for the above:
What if? What if? What if? Life is full of what ifs. What if I do this? What if I need that? What if the sky falls, if the mountains crumble, if I break my leg or get knocked up or forget my wireless password? What if Google is down?! (It’s OK, it’s not, deep breath.)
It’s one thing to go online to look for practical solutions to every-day problems, like alternatives to baking soda…
But consulting the Internet for amorphous philosophical quandaries could be troublesome:
Don’t want a background on your Google? Google that. Don’t know if you want to stay in/get out of your committed relationship? I think there are healthier ways to approach your ambivalence. WebMD is a quick alternative to a doctor, but it shouldn’t replace a proper diagnosis; Google may lead you to advice blogs or forums of like-minded folk, but remember, it’s not as personalized as it’s designed to appear. I sincerely hope people are not, in favor of anonymous web-searching, forsaking the wisdom and understanding of friends, family… and professionals.
We all have goals, we just don’t want to work too hard to reach them. Indeed, we want the easiest way to get where we’re going — and the easiest way to figure out what the easiest way is. So it stands to reason that we’d seek the existential paths of least resistance as we’d look for the best routes to avoid traffic after a long weekend: Google. What are we hoping to achieve in the easiest possible ways? New skills. A smaller waist and a bigger paycheck. A good looking site, a better looking suit. The easiest way out.
Aw, man. Easiest way to kill oneself? Seriously? That’s such a freaking downer. I mean, it’ s bad enough that there are so many people out there contemplating suicide. But it’s a whole new level of sad that they’re searching Google for the best ways to do it. So much for going out with dignity.
As you can imagine, the search results for “easiest way to kill oneself” contain some rather disturbing tidbits, like this forum discussion on a game developer website. Oh, nerds. Then there’s the creepy Wikipedia summary divided into Bleeding, Drowning, Suffocation and Electrocution. But I think the thing that strikes me most is down, down, down at the bottom of the page, where Google presents its selection of “related searches.” Among them: “cheapest way to kill yourself.” I’m all for thrift, but if there’s one thing to blow your wad on, it might as well be this.
