I had a good laugh just a few minutes ago. After eating a late breakfast and watching an episode of the old Cosmos series, I happened upon Who Wants to be a Millionaire just before turning off the television.

I surmised it was a newlywed version, as there was a couple in the hot seat, and the man made a comment about what kind of wedding gifts they might expect. But that really has nothing to do with the story.

There was a question on the board about which country bordered on five different seas. The couple opted to use the 50/50 lifeline, and the two answers that remained were Italy and Turkey. They still didn't know which answer to choose, so they polled the audience.

It has been a long, long time since I have seen this show, but apparently they now include AOL users as part of the audience and have some way to tally votes from them. The studio audience thought the answer was Italy, and the AOL audience thought the answer was Turkey. The couple still could not choose, so they chose to end the game and walk away with $16,000.

Then they revealed the correct answer: Italy.

I had to laugh.

I don't think there was any other appropriate response. I can remember the days of the Internet when AOL - which was once its own separate online service - became connected to the Internet. People who had no idea what the Internet was were suddenly jumping online, like a bunch of renegade kids crashing a respectible pool party. I remember reading something that someone wrote about how, if the Internet was truly a super highway, that AOL would be a big bus spewing black smoke and with passengers throwing rotten cabbage at other drivers.

The Internet community (i.e. from the true Internet culture that existed before John Q. Public and relatives were granted access) looked at AOL users with much disdain as the tainted Internet culture became increasingly eroded with each new free AOL floppy disk that arrived in some poor soul's mail box. The AOL was perceived as a sort of plague, which has since spread to a myriad of Internet Service Providers, giving birth to the commercialization and degeneration of the World Wide Web and the many other services that made up the Internet (Gopher? What's that?).

So, here is a group of AOL users, watching a trivia program on television while sitting at their computers. The audience is polled about a question on the screen, and they get it wrong. Now, imagine this if you will. Some scruffy looking guy in his underwear, sitting at the computer AND watching television, sees a trivia question pop up on the television. Keep in mind, THE GUY IS ONLINE! Practically everything you ever wanted to know is at his fingertips. All he has to do is do a quick Google search and find the answer. Boom! But, instead, he decides to fancy himself an expert in geography, scratches is ass, and votes for Turkey.

I just imagined a head of rotting cabbage somewhere nearby.

I guess, when you look at the maps, even then there is some question about which is the correct answer (depending on the maps you get). But, still, the whole thing just made me laugh, because I was one of those Internet users who hated to see the influx of AOL users who knew nothing about computers, and who thought the Internet was simply, and only, the World Wide Web, and who thought it was fun to distribute chain letters and clog up usenet with hundreds of "me too" messages. They just had a reputation for being degenerates. And stupid. Not all of them are, of course, but those who aren't, unfortunately, are perceived as such by association.

As far as I am concerned, AOL is still a plague. But, like any cancer, you learn to live with it, mourn what was lost, and press on.