Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Google Wouldn't Do This for Me

Neither would the New York Times

In fact, I'm pretty sure the Star-Ledger doesn't want me to tell you this, but-

My husband brought me a sausage recipe from the newspaper. "Gee," he said, "this looks tasty." Not only that, it would use up some of that cabbage in the refrigerator.

I wrote down the missing ingredients on the shopping list and clipped the recipe. Several days later, when I had all the ingredients, I looked for the recipe but could not find it anywhere.

"No problem!" I said. "I'll find it on their website." I'm a pretty good Googler, but I never did find it. I had to improvise, throwing ingredients in the pan and crossing my fingers. Naturally, I wrote a peevish email to the Star-Ledger, saying that I expected their website to mirror and archive their print content.

I had a very kind email back. Someone named Kim offered to US mail me the only sausage recipes that the Star Ledger had printed within the last month. I felt bad putting her to that trouble; all I had wanted was to express my annoyance. She insisted that she had already pulled the section and the envelope was right in front of her.

The envelope arrived today. "Kim" turned out to be Kimberly Jackson, the Lifestyle editor. And to my delight, it was the right recipe. I'm looking forward to trying it, right after I go shopping again.

Thanks, Ms. Jackson. Thanks, Star Ledger. I'm glad I'm a print subscriber.

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