F. Loeffelbein's WHATCHAMA COLUMN; "A Look at the Cool Sites We've Lost On the Internet""

      I love browsing in used book stores because I often come across a tome that is intriguing enough for a column. Such was the case when I recently found a copy of "Cyber Hound's Internet Guide to the Coolest Stuff Out There", printed by a company called Visible Ink Press, a division of Gale Research, Inc. Gale, for many years, has specialized in printing reference books for libraries.
     Though this was printed in 1996, which is not long ago in human life years, practically everything I Googled from it has disappeared. The book is composed of 364 pages of then-current websites, showing how fast the Internet chews up and spits out the ideas and imaginations of us submittors. What a shame we will no longer be able to browse and learn from such sites as these:

Aaron A. Aardvark's Aardvark Abstract, which was a computer graphics video gallery featuring, among other things, a comic strip starring an aardvark and a nerdy turtle.

Angelnet, aimed at the inherent flower child in each of us, featured angels, yoga, dolphins, mages and music; a labyrinth to explore; meditation guides and angel water for sale; stories of angelic encounters, even an interactive poem.

Art Crimes' goal was "to help preserve and document the constantly disappearing works of the graffiti art movement." It included a graffiti FAQ, glossary, and bibliography; graffiti-related magazines and videos, tips for photographing graffiti, scanning images for use on the Web, and transferring images using FTP, critical reviews of graffiti literature, essays and calendars of graffiti art shows and events.

Ask Puddy was a cat who answered your questions about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness on business, medicine and affairs of the heart.

The Asylum, submitted by someone in Cal Tech's education department, offered a gallery of peg-light art, a scratch pad they could draw on, an interactive "fiction therapy" salon, a cuckoo clock (with sound), a mascot that could be fed or smushed, a "core dump" of useless stuff. and a chance to immortalize oneself among the ranks of The Asylum's inmates.

 Avenger's Front Page was where one could find revenge strategies ranging from lively April Fool-type pranks to how to properly and definitely say goodbye to your old job, as well as links to o
other revenge-related resources, including how to pick a lock and the ultimate list of practical jokes. 

     And these few samples take us only through the A's - the sites are listed alphabetically A through Z - and page 33. What a shame we have lost the myriad musings offered by these hundreds of expectant Website authors. Like our earth in the deep-space universe, though, this fulsome listing is a mere speck in the vastness of the present day Internet! I guess that's why this book so intrigued me.