So, I knew many of these tricks posted by Motto on Feb. 3rd .
For example, I often put quotation marks around exact phrases to secure more specific results (TIP #1). I also use the wildcard (*) regularly for variable endings on a particular word (like: vari* to give me results that include multiple endings to that word– TIP #2). Though I hadn’t thought of how this wildcard might work in phrases.
If, for example, I wanted to figure out how badly I’m butchering a cultural axiom that I think I’ve heard right (is it coming down the pike? Or coming down the pipe?), I could google “coming down the *” and voila, I find out I have been saying it wrong. Great.
But what I didn’t know that I find ridiculously fun is TIP #5 that provides a database of archived news stories from all over the world. Wanna see the published Daily Evening Globe from 1866 (actually SEE it, not just read the text)? I’m gonna like this tip. My favorite line so far is from a story about a fight that broke out at a Scottish hospital charity event from January 19, 1866 is this:
Few men are inclined to be disputative during the process of digestion…In an evil hour, the doctor made an allusion quite reverend…and forthwith a storm broke out. A doughty little malcontent rose in his wrath– as far as the limits of his stature. Blows were freely exchanged!
When did we stop using such demean
ing descriptions of people in newspaper stories?
Check out the ads for “Smart Girls Wanted” and a brief story about a woman who believed her household goods had been slowly disappearing as a result of spirits. The police later arrested her son for the theft. Interesting stuff.
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If you’re interested in the other tips (a few of them are just fun ways to play with Google), check out this video.
Teaching Multiliteracies 