Re: Hooey

David Levinson writes:

"On
Google
Tonio+Kroger+Mann turns up 596
Felix+Krull+Mann turns up
2580

So if Google is a good representation of the canon
(its better than most), it suggests Krull is more
important."

I don't think this is correct. For instance, the
search "Tonio+Mann" turns up 4,690 hits--almost all of
which spell "Kroger" correctly--with an
umlaut.

Searching with high-bit ASCII character 148 for
tonio+Krger+mann, yields 2,510 which, combined with the 318 of
"tonio+Kroeger+mann" still puts it in the lead.

The moral? Use
Google with caution, particularly when dealing with
foreign titles--I'm nowhere near certain that my efforts
have resulted in an accurate representation of the
relative frequency that the two works are
mentioned.

-- R. Robert Hentzel
President and Chief
Technical Officer,
National Academic Quiz Tournaments,
LLC

P.S. Is this important? Well, not really. But it's a
useful lesson in the subjectiveness of memory and the
irritation of foreign-language titles. And the "limitations"
of Google.

And by subjectiveness of memory, I
don't mean to pick on Roger--I have a ton of respect
for him. Even now, with my official playing days long
past, I'll play tournaments and be convinced that there
was twice as much sports as science only to count the
questions when I get home . . . and find that it was the
exact opposite.

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