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According to Hofmann: Search, Alt, Delete

By Mark Hofmann mhofmann@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read
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My brother and I made a pact years ago when the internet started becoming a huge monster of information and entertainment and became more accessible to all the wonders that exist in the world.

Simply put, if one of us would die, the surviving brother would clear the otherĢƵ internet browser history to save the deceased whatever, letĢƵ say, embarrassments they’ve accumulated over the years.

That pact still holds true today — we even added a condition that if clearing the search history means the surviving brother has to illegally enter the otherĢƵ home and do harm to their widowed sister in-law to get the job done, then so be it.

I recently noticed that I constantly have to look up information on online search browsers for my weekly columns from the little things like “How do you spell exile-a-phone?” (which I did for this column) to big things like “How do you play the xylophone?” (which I didn’t do for this column) and obvious things like “WhatĢƵ a xylophone?” (which I did for this column because music class was 30 years ago).

ThereĢƵ really no reason not to go online and view pages to gain knowledge or learn a new skill or hobby — heck, even YouTube has grown from a place where you can watch videos of cats wearing sunglasses and playing the piano to now watching videos of how to create a video of a cat wearing sunglasses and playing the piano.

It was then I thought that I could write a column just about everything I had to search to, well, write a column. Because, if someone would see my search history, they wouldn’t know if I was plotting an act of illegal wickedness or planning a surprise party for a pirate.

The column I’m going to use for the main example is the one from last week about all the mugs in my house.

If you read that column or not, just looking at what I typed in the search history would make you wonder what strange, twisted path on the world wide web I traveled.

Some searches for last weekĢƵ column included:

“What are mugs made out of?”

“What are champain glasses called?”

“How do you spell champain?”

“What are champagne glasses called?”

“Are ‘tribbles’ from ‘Star Trek’ capitalized?”

“William Shatner singing ‘Rocket Man’.”

“William Shatner singing ‘Bohemian Rapsody’.”

“How do you spell rapsody?”

“William Shatner singing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.”

“William Shatner singing Christmas songs” (For your information, William Shatner singing had nothing to do with last weekĢƵ column about coffee mugs; I just get easily distracted.)

“WhatĢƵ the difference between cupboards and cabinets?”

“How long does adrenaline last in your system?”

“How much adrenaline does it take to kill a human?”

“Where would one store a body that died, say, of an adrenaline overdose? I’m asking for a friend.”

“William Shatner singing AC/DCĢƵ ‘Thunderstruck’.”

“How many mugs are sold at beach destinations?”

Yep, reading that list totally out of context sounds like a 4-year-old kid with a low attention span bombarding people with random questions all day long, which reminds me:

“At what age do children ask a lot of questions?” and “WhatĢƵ the definition of bombarding?”

See? You even get a peek inside what research went into writing this very column.

I’m sure I’m not alone. There are other people out there that probably have the same odd and/or embarrassing combination of search entries that can be taken way out of context like a plumber, a student doing extensive research on Sperm Whales, childrenĢƵ birthday party magicians, Charlie Sheen, a sheep breeder and any profession that deals with hotdog wieners.

However, not all those people have siblings willing to take that extra step to clear their search history, so for those souls out there, thereĢƵ only one thing to do:

“How do you erase your browserĢƵ search history and make videos of cats wearing sunglasses and playing the piano to William Shatner singing?”

According to Hofmann is written by staff reporter Mark Hofmann of Rostraver Township. His books, “Good Mourning! A Guide to Biting the Big One…and Dying, Too” and “Stupid Brain,” are available on Amazon.com. He co-hosts the “Locally Yours” radio show on WMBS 590 AM every Friday.

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