Shout Out to Google

To be honest, I like the Yankees. And the Patriots. And I liked the Braves in their calm dominance (but never the Bills). I like the idea of greatness, of (non-genealogical) dynasty, of record-breakers. This makes me, I sense, somewhat un-American in most people's eyes, though it's worth noting that my America is the triumphant America, the America that is flexible and grows to adapt and to maintain itself on its great perch. (Such is why the thoughts of Rome I've been having are so disconcerting.)

In therapy I came up with one hypothesis why I love the (merit-based) favorite - because I see that person as me. Such is the source of the tension in debates about the better Ramah camper - the one who was always going to be a Rabbi (MJP) or the one whose experience at camp brought them closer to Judaism and gave them, likely, a meaningful Jewish life they never would have had (BG). Or, similarly, on what the greatest Wexner fellow is, or other such debates. I have a second suggestion, one I think that Dr. Jackson (no, not this one) would find compelling as well (and, for all I know, she thought about it at the moment): dynasty is a doubly-meaningful approach to immortality, to never growing old (and thus the love for Peter Pan and James T. Kirk). For dynasty means both a reign stretching forward forever (as if Posada, Rivera, Jeter, and Williams could be replaced), aided by adaptability and sheer brilliance (see: Belicheck and Cassel, 2008) and putting yourself in the record books so that people speak about you long after you're gone (Lombardi; Julio-Claudians).

This post, however, is neither about sports nor my introspective psychoanalysis. Rather, it's about one of the new kids on the block, someone that, I imagine, my children or grandchildren might see as the "Evil Empire" or as at least as outdated as we today look on in scorn at Ford, Lehman Brothers, et c.: Google.

I've been an apostle of the brilliance of GMail since I first encountered it, in August of 2004. It's simply the best, and, as JBR pointed out to me today, it just got better. For Google has now introduced, in addition to the multiple account function (still looking for differentiated signatures, et c., however), the calendar (would like to change time zones without changing the timing of everything I've ever done), the archiving (God's gift to packrats), practically unlimited storage space (who needs web space when you have GMail, Na'aleh 2008?), and document sharing (still not realized in its full greatness, but that's, I think, more my fault than theirs), they've now added an off-line feature that allows you to write, search, and archive off-line (not everything, but the last six months is pretty great - plus some tabs in their entirety) - one of the great motherloads. Add to that their constantly improving interface, other labs ranging from goofy to unbelievably helpful (like the "tasks" function) and I am just so happy to use their product.

May Google go from strength to strength.