TITLE: Eccentric Internet Holdout Delbert T. Quimby
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: February 05, 2014  4:08 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
Back in
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2006-07.html#e2006-07-21T17_15_09.htm">
   a July 2006 entry</A>,
I mentioned a 1995 editorial cartoon by
<A HREF="http://edsteinink.com/">
   Ed Stein</A>,
then of the Rocky Mountain News.  The cartoon featured
"eccentric Internet holdout Delbert T. Quimby",
contentedly passing another day non-digitally, reading a book
in his den and drinking a glass of wine.  It's always been a
favorite of mine.

The cartoon had at least one other big fan.  He looked for it
on the web but had no luck finding it.  When he googled the
quote, though, there my blog entry was.  Recently, his wife
uncovered a newspaper clipping of the cartoon, and he
remembered the link to my blog post.  In an act of unprovoked
kindness, he sent me a scan of the cartoon.  So, 7+ years
later, here it is:

<CENTER>
<IMG SRC="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog-images/humor/delbert-t-quimby.png"
     ALT="Eccentric Internet holdout Delbert T. Quimby passes yet another day non-digitally."
     ALIGN="center"
     WIDTH="500" />
</CENTER>

The web really is an amazing place.  Thanks, Duncan.

In 1995, being an Internet holdout was not quite as radical
as it would be today.  I'm guessing that most of the holdouts
in 2014 are Of A Certain Age, remembering a simpler time when
information was harder to come.  To avoid the Internet and
the web entirely these days is to miss out on a lot of life.

Even so, I am eccentric enough still to appreciate time
off-line, a good book in my hand and a beverage at my side.
Like my digital devices, I need to recharge every now and
then.

(Right now, I am re-reading David Lodge's
<A HREF="https://openlibrary.org/books/OL24381867M/Small_world">
   Small World</A>.
It's fun to watch academics made good sport of.)
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