But I was thinking, 'why stop there?' Where else might one kill time on the internet? And then I thought of Wikipedia. For those of you who don't know the site (are you living under a rock?), it is a user-written version of the encyclopedia. Essentially anyone who is an authority (or who thinks they are an authority) on a subject can post an entry. This makes for interesting, if not always accurate, reading.
The articles commonly have internal references to other Wiki entries, however, which means you can easily get a bad case of web-based ADD and suddenly find you are reading an article on goat cheese (when your initial research was based on civil war submarines), and it is making you feel hungry. It is then you look at the clock, and with abject horror realize the reason you might be hungry because you have been on Wiki for six hours and haven't eaten. You also realize you have to go to the bathroom badly, need eyedrops from not-blinking, and the sun is coming up.
Anyway, I thought to myself, 'self, why not do a vanity search on Wiki?' Often, if you enter a vague search term, the site will send you to the page it thinks you meant, and offer you a chance to clarify by going to a "disambiguation" page--which results in a ton of links for the term. By entering "David", I of course got a long article about the guy who slew Goliath. But here is what I learned about myself from the disambiguation page:
Not including the sling-wielding Jewish king, other famous Davids include Saint David, the patron saint of Wales; David of Sasun, an Armenian epic hero; David I and David II, former Kings of Scotland; "David", an Indian actor (1908 – 1981) who apparently had no last name; Jacques-Louis David (1748 – 1825), a French painter; and Dávid, a Slovak noble family.
In the art world, there is of course the famous statue of David by Michelangelo but, unbeknownst to me, there are also sculptures by Donatello, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Andrea del Verrochio. There is a link to a movie called "King David", but it starred Richard Gere, so I didn't bother.
There are several places, as well: Camp David, the American presidential retreat; David, Panama and David, Kentucky; David City, Nebraska; St. David, in Arizona and Illinois; and St. David's in Pennsylvania and Wales.
Most Fun Fact discovered whilst on this little manuever: there was apparently a Spanish car company back in the early 20th century that made these babies:
They were tiny little things, most models having three wheels and only two seats, and were only in production between 1913-1923 and 1951-1957. If you think it looks a little like a Citroen, I did too. And they apparently were sleeping in the same production bed for a while, as well. Now I want to get one.
And of course, there are these guys.
What does your name link to?
2 comments:
Would you ride with me in a David-esque Citroen on our way to see The David statue whist eating David sunflower seeds? :) My Wiki search lists: Denise as a municipality in Brazil, "Denise" a 1963 song by Randy & the Rainbows (later covered by Blondie with a slightly different title!!), Saint Denise (there are 2!), and Denise the computer chip (my coworkers would be proud). Wee!
I find myself humming "You're so vain, you probably think this [post] is about you, don't you? Don't you?"
Oh...wait. Not about YOU. But...eh. Nevermind.
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