The Real McCoy and the Internet

Just as I was synchronizing blog posts and journal entries, the phrase "the real McCoy" came to me. So I opened a new tab in Safari, went to a9.com, and did a phrase search—including etymology in the search terms. (I don't remember why I thought of the real McCoy, I have a feeling there's a reason why, but I can't remember anymore.)

Apparently it referred to real, unadulterated Scotch whiskey, and came to mean the genuine article, but other origins still circulate. I thought that was interesting, and got around to thinking how the internet enables such knowledge safaris, in addition to more dubious applications.

It's just too bad that the very nature of the internet also incubates such annoyances, productivity drains, and dangers as spam, viruses and malware—not to mention the proliferation of inaccurate or downright erroneous information, sometimes making research harder than it should be.