The self-Googling vice becomes a virtue.

The Corner links to this article, which advises people to self-Google every day to monitor their own reputations. It used to be considered egotistical to Google your own name, but now people who have been careful to maintain their own modesty can go right ahead and self-Google because it has been recast as a virtue of sorts. One must guard against slander.

A problem I have doing this is that my first name, being annoyingly plain (annoyingly plain), is used to great excess as a middle name. So even though I've never run across another Ann Althouse, there are enough (blank) Ann Althouses to gum up the self-Googling. That said, I always rather enjoy re-encountering Lydia Ann Althouse who appears in this 1861 case.

Commonwealth vs. Lydia Ann Althouse — Assault and battery, on complaint of John Hinkle, Jr., of Richland township. The defendant is the wife of Mathias Althouse, whose name also appears in the report of the proceedings of this term. The prosecutor is the constable of Richland township, and having an execution in his hands against Mr. Althouse, went to where he lived to levy on some of the property, when it was claimed by the defendant as hers. The constable being disposed to disregard her claim, she assaulted and beat him – and hence this complaint. The goods, were however seized, and sold by the constable, and a civil suit is now pending by the defendant against the constable for damages therefrom. This prosecution for assault and battery was now settled by the parties, and a nol pros. entered. Gilkyson for Commonwealth.

That was pretty feisty of her.

And here's a discussion I'd never seen before. It's amusing to see that a bunch of people found something I wrote a while back funny.

But actually, it's too much trouble to wade through most of this stuff. Maybe it's better to stick with the low tech practice of just worrying about what people might be saying about you!