Useful
LINKS
Over
the course of my editorship of this publication, I have come
across several "treasure troves": those uncharted
depths of the Internet that are unknown to all but the most
intrepid searcher. I present my favorites (along with some
better-known destinations) to the right.
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LINKS
TO OTHER USEFUL AND INFORMATIVE SITES
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| Wikipedia
(www.wikipedia.org)
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This is one of the largest and most-referenced sites on the
entire WWW. It is a free encyclopedia, developed over the
course of several years by hundreds of ordinary people with
one goal: to provide everyone with "free access to the
sum of all human knowledge." It contains over 1.1 million
articles in English, hundreds of thousands of which have been
translated into dozens of languages. In my opinion, it is
a very reliable source, though the quality of the content
can vary. When possible, I corroborate with other written
sources.
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I can confidently say this is one of the best sites in existence.
It was created by Douglas Harper, a historian and author who
one day was unable to locate a free online dictionary of word
histories. Rather than buy the expensive Oxford English Dictionary,
he created his own. His site is well organized, easy to navigate,
pleasing to the eye, and rich with content. It is
an impeccable source for etymologies of pretty much any word
I've thrown at it. Like most truly great sites, it is non-profit
and depends on the donations of its visitors.
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The
Wordsmith (wordsmith.org) |
This is an absolutely brilliant site. My favorite part is
AWAD (A.Word.A.Day), which is my current homepage. Each day
of the week, a new word - often completely obscure and delightful
- comes up on your screen, along with a brief etymology, a
sample sentence, and an occasional blurb. Each word is accompanied
by an X-Bonus, or quotation, often profound. The archives
are an excellent resource for word buffs; my only complaint
is that there is no easy way to search them.
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If you want to find extensive stories on what happened "this
day in history," there's not a better place than this
site. What separates this site from the hundreds of others
is its level of detail (most places have a blurb, if even
that). "This Day In History" allows you to search
for historical events in 15 categories.
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This site is a delightful resource. It provides a true, false,
or uncertain rating to practically any question thrown at
its writers (e.g., "Did Van Halen's performance contract
contain a provision banishing brown M&Ms from backstage?").
Every answer is thoroughly researched and documented, and
the story-style in which they are written makes them a fun
read. You're sure to learn something new regardless of what
answer you click.
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For more esoteric questions (and the general ones too), this
is a great site to visit. Cecil Adams, the site's founder,
has been answering questions for about thirty years now, and
has amassed quite an archive of tongue-in-cheek answers. While
I focus on questions relating to language and history, Cecil
will answer pretty much anything. Actually, I'm sure it's
anything. Give it a shot.
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