THE INTERNET An Essay by Jim Kittelberger Talk about being absorbed, about being sucked into a world that will transfix you for hours on end, then you have to be talking about the Internet. By clicking on to C-SPAN, I can be listening to an author talking about his current book, or listen to Garrison Keillor’s PRARIE HOME COMPANION while I am browsing through the TATE in Britain, the METROPOLITAN in New York, or the BRANDWINE gallery in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Depending on your tastes, you will certainly find what you’re looking for in this galaxy of plenty. This has to be as close to nirvana as you can get unless you sit at my wife’s table and savor the aromas. I have never been a sophisticate in things of the world. I’ve always felt it cramped the experience of discovery, the pure joy of seeing something for the first time, of enjoying those things that are not commonplace in my world. In fact, I made a conscious decision early on that to replace those feelings with a veneer of worldliness was not for me. So with this background, you can see why I am bowled over by the Internet. The Internet has allowed me to meander back to the things of my childhood, the things that kids remember. Like the comic books I read, they’re on the net, or at least the covers are. The bicycle that I loved is also there, a ROADMASTER with a brake light and other features that knocked me out at the time. You can learn a foreign language; you can even chat with someone on the other side of the planet. You can visit the biggest flea market in the world, E-BAY. Now there are some who snub this electronic miracle to their detriment. It can teach, it is THE communication development (e-mail) that keeps families and friends and indeed business in contact, without even affixing a stamp. It has become a boon to the elderly and retired of the world. It opens up new interests in folks who thought they would retire to a rocking chair, but instead they have developed new interests and discovered new talents they didn’t even know they had. And finally what most of us go to the Internet for, it amuses us, big time.