1108-27

As the purveyor of a lightly trafficked, strangely titled blog, I don't expect much "internet presence". But I don't think it's too much to ask for my blog, humble as it is, to turn up as the first result when the search term is its explicit title.

And yet, when you Google "iz/ott", this humble space is second. This in itself isn't too surprising, though--the internet is a big place, and "iz/ott" is not all that unique an invention--you could imagine someone somewhere stumbling upon the same phrase in an article or blog post somewhere. So why am I complaining?

I will tell you why I am complaining. It is because "iz/ott" appears to be not some word typed by a human and used in a sentence, but instead the garbled result of a PDF's attempt to interpret the string "1108-27" in a scanned image of a typewritten document.

Ok, that's a little wild, you say--very improbable, and yet, still within the bounds of what we might expect from a vast internet filled with arbitrary strings. So really, David, why the fuss?

Oh, I will tell you what the fuss is, my dear reader. I will tell you why I shake my fist at the internet and wail at the injustice of the universe. It is because the typewritten document in question--the one that displaces my humble blog as the number one search result for "iz/ott"--is what appears to be a 1964 progress report by the Institute of Paper Chemistry addressed to the Fourdrinier Kraft Board Institute Rigid-When-Wet Committee as to the feasibility of a corrugated cardboard box that can remain structurally intact when wet to facilitate the boxing of chickens.

I shit you not. Go ahead an search within the document for "iz-ott".

Damn you, Project 1108-27! Damn you to hell!