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Site Seeing

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By JULES ALLEN
Published March 29, 2004

Smaller world

local.google.com/

Google, the company that claims it never tries to do anything evil, is moving into your neighborhood. This beta test of the monster search engine's new service looks promising. A quick trawl for a dry cleaners downtown showed me where to get my shirts starched, the distance, and even if the business had a Web site. Nice. Yet, there are holes. Vainly searching for "newspapers" found only the Times' Tampa edition on page 7.

Soul for sale

www.AdTunes.com/

If you don't have a TiVo, there's a good chance you've been driven nuts by those fiendishly clever Madison Avenue types and their quest to implant a tune in your head. In a perfect world, you'd associate their client with said tune. But you're probably just left humming some notes and annoying those around you. Fear not, for help is at hand. If you're trying to track down something catchy, AdTunes is your guide to ad music on TV.

Captain Blythe

www.ThisIsBlythe.com/

If you've got an original Blythe doll, you're probably sitting on a car payment. Before being sucked up by Hasbro, manufacturer Kenner added to the melange of '70s kitsch by offering this big head, chameleon-eyed wonder. Collectors and those who just like to play with dolls seem to be mildly obsessed with Blythe, and the fan sites are bordering on obsessive. How wonderful.

Who loves ya, baby?

FadeToBlack.com/hallofshame/

What is it about actors and singers that makes almost every one of them want to play on the other side? William Shatner is infamous for his 1968 spoken word album The Transformed Man. While it was intended to be taken seriously, he certainly has capitalized on its camp popularity. But you have to wonder what drives the talentless others to assault our sensibilities. Here you'll find songs from the likes of George Burns and Telly Savalas. It's all so terrible, you just can't avert your ears.

Have and have not

www.inequality.org/

There's a great quote by editor and priest Edward Dowling that says, "The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it." If those left-leaning words tickle your fancy, you're sure to enjoy this site. It's none too thrilled with the demise of the middle class' upward mobility.

[Last modified March 26, 2004, 11:31:14]

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