2008 Woodie Awards
God Bless America and nowhere else
Donald Woodard
Issue date: 10/28/05 Section: Opinions
I, like millions of college and high
school students across the country, am a
member of a website called Facebook. For
those not familiar with the website, it is a
site comprised of thousands of high schools
and colleges that allows members to search
for and fi nd many of their friends from
grammar school, high school and college.
"Facebook" is probably the most
popular website in the country right now.
It allows students to reconnect with those
from their past and present, while also
serving as a social network that allows easy
accessibility to friends and associates.
I am not going to lie: I am a facebook nut.
I don't even want to mention how much of
my time is spent on the site chatting with,
searching for, and poking fun at friends. I
love the site.
One night, as I sat on facebook changing
my picture for about the 20th time, I noticed that I
had received a message from a friend who told
me about a mistake when you search a certain word
on Google. I was urged to check it out
before Google fi xed the problem.
I was told to Google search the word
"failure" but instead of hitting the search
icon, I was told to hit the "I'm feeling
Lucky" icon on the page. I was guaranteed
by the friend that if I did it correctly, I
would fi nd a "shocking revelation" about a
central character in the government.
Since this person had sparked my
interest, I decided to do it. I followed all
of the instructions that they had laid out
for me. I was surprised at what I saw, not
because I did not feel that this "Chief"
character in our federal government (I'm
trying to tease everyone but I know you
already know who I'm talking about) was
a complete and utter failure, but because it
would actually be the top search result for
the word "failure."
I mean, how bad do you have to mess
things up to be the defi nition of failure? I
guess we already know that answer.
school students across the country, am a
member of a website called Facebook. For
those not familiar with the website, it is a
site comprised of thousands of high schools
and colleges that allows members to search
for and fi nd many of their friends from
grammar school, high school and college.
"Facebook" is probably the most
popular website in the country right now.
It allows students to reconnect with those
from their past and present, while also
serving as a social network that allows easy
accessibility to friends and associates.
I am not going to lie: I am a facebook nut.
I don't even want to mention how much of
my time is spent on the site chatting with,
searching for, and poking fun at friends. I
love the site.
One night, as I sat on facebook changing
my picture for about the 20th time, I noticed that I
had received a message from a friend who told
me about a mistake when you search a certain word
on Google. I was urged to check it out
before Google fi xed the problem.
I was told to Google search the word
"failure" but instead of hitting the search
icon, I was told to hit the "I'm feeling
Lucky" icon on the page. I was guaranteed
by the friend that if I did it correctly, I
would fi nd a "shocking revelation" about a
central character in the government.
Since this person had sparked my
interest, I decided to do it. I followed all
of the instructions that they had laid out
for me. I was surprised at what I saw, not
because I did not feel that this "Chief"
character in our federal government (I'm
trying to tease everyone but I know you
already know who I'm talking about) was
a complete and utter failure, but because it
would actually be the top search result for
the word "failure."
I mean, how bad do you have to mess
things up to be the defi nition of failure? I
guess we already know that answer.
