what i know is...

I am a big fan of Wikipedia.

For those who do not yet know the wiki, allow me to explain. A wiki is any sort of open database of information, where anyone can log on, write out what they know, then leave it for others to read and add to. What a marvelous idea. That way, if you want to know something, you can just search for that entry and read the information as written by people who were interested in the topic enough to research it themselves and then write up for everyone else. In all likelihood, you can find all or most of the information on a wiki at some other internet source, but here it is, all nicely compiled for you.

Of course, the danger here is that anyone could just make something up and post it for everyone to see as the gospel truth (or as close as we get in regarding historical matters). But then other readers can flag the article to say, "Hey, somethings not right here. There's no way that JFK cut the ribbon at the first Starbucks!" And then eventually someone will fix it.

I like the collective knowledge idea. No one knows everything, but together, we can know a lot. I've been using this idea in my life for years: I know lots of people who know a lot in specific fields. When I have a car question, I ask my old roommate, Nick. When I have a science question, I ask my dad. When I have a question about obscure family anecdotes, I ask my brothers. Any insurance or financial questions are answered by my mother. Literature questions go to Josh, and so do questions about music, Catholicism, history, word origins, philosophy, his ex-girlfriends, training pets, cartoons...I think I'm dating a wiki.

Anyway, here is a way for me to find out something even if I don't know someone who is an expert or if that person is currently unavailable when the information is needed.

Though a wiki can refer to any sort of such database, Wikipedia is the main one. It's basically an all-encompassing knowledge base. In my internet broswer, I have a search bar that goes directly to Wikipedia. Whenever I want to look something up, I just type it in there, and information becomes mine.

The fascinating thing about Wikipedia is that you can sit and be basically reading the encyclopedia for hours. Each article is peppered with links to other articles about related (and sometimes completely unrelated, but somehow referenced) subjects. You start with any old subject, read that, and then click some link that you found in the article, read that, click another link, and so on and so on. One day, I looked up the Nuremberg Trials because of a book I was reading, and I pretty much read the entire biography of every major Nazi. The day after the Miss Teen USA pageant, I learned the entire history of all major American pageants (one of them was started by a swimsuit company). I don't retain everything I read - I honestly don't really learn very well just by reading. But I retain enough of it, I'm kept entertained, and I feel good about the fact that I was making intellectual pursuits with my time.

I think my favorite part of Wikipedia is seeing how everything is related. At the end of each article is a bunch of links to related articles, many of them larger categories which the topic relates to. So maybe I looked up Steve Irwin the day after he died, then clicked on the Accidental Deaths category, which led me to Judy Garland (barbituate overdose, real name Frances Ethel Gumm), then clicked on the article about The Wizard of Oz (1939), which led me to the American Musicals category. From there, I hit Into the Woods, which led me to Steven Sondheim (who was born to nonpracticing Jewish parents), which led to Assassins, where I ended up with Leon Czolgosz, who killed McKinley. I went on to the category of 1901 deaths, where I finally learned about Srpouhi Dussap, the first female Armenian novelist. All that from Steve Irwin.

There are lots of wikis. A couple of my favorites include Muppet wiki and TMBG wiki. Particularly fascinating is how the different Muppets are made. It's fascinating to me, anyway.

I'm sort of amused at myself at how much I enjoy reading Wikipedia. I realize that I am essentially sitting in some library somewhere with a volume of the World Book Encyclopedia sitting on my lap. It's really, really dorky. But that's okay. I'm learning so much!