Yesterday I wanted to call somebody in Grayslake, Illinois, so I naturally did the first thing that sprang to mind: I googled her name and was faced with a dizzying array of web sites that were supposedly made just for the purpose of providing me with phone numbers, addresses, financial histories, maybe even the names of people she was romantically involved with. I’ll never know, though, because just about every one of those web sites wanted me to pay for the information. The few that didn’t ask for money didn’t give me her phone number.

I couldn’t believe it. All that technology putting the vast resources of the internet at my fingertips, and I couldn’t find a simple phone number? I was in full curmudgeon mode: Why, in my day all you had to do was pick up the phone, dial 411 and … 

Oh. Wait. Can you still do that? I picked up the phone, punched in 411, heard the pickup on the other end. “What city?”

You can still do that!