In 1991 I got a book out from the library about Diane Downs called Small Sacrifices. This was one of the first true crime novels I had ever read and I was blown away by how good it was. This was about a year or two after I had seen the mini-series starring Farrah Fawcett as the murdering mum. That’s about as far as my research ever went around that time. See a movie, a year later read a book or alternatively, read a book and see a movie years later.
Today, I watch a movie called Home Room starring Busy Phillips. I google Busy, find her on Wikipedia, discover that she was on Dawsons Creek, click on the link, get reminded of Kevin Williamson who wrote Scream and adapted I know what you did last summer (IKWYDLS) in to a movie starring that girl i hate. I am reminded of the author I loved so many years ago in grade 8 and 9 called Lois Duncan who wrote the book the movie is based on. I read many of her books but wanted to be reminded of their names so when I clicked on her wikipedia link I discovered something rather ironic and rather sad. Years after writing a book like INWYDLS her daughter is killed in her car by an unknown assaliant. Police say random drive-by, Lois says otherwise. Incredible story and very interesting to me.
So in less than 15 minutes I suddenly knew more about a person than I had using a similar knowledge gaining exercise 15 years ago before the internet. This is an experience few kids today will understand and it frustrates me to think that I can say this at only age 31. “Back in my day, we had to look up information in books, kids”. I think that this kind of knowledge empowerment is great!