Four Times I Used Image Search

A Friday Hodgepodge

1. I was in Europe a few weeks ago and needed to do laundry. I'd gotten up at 4:00 a.m., successfully getting sole access to a tiny facility shared by hundreds of people. I used our largest suitcase to bring all the laundry at once. I had the detergent pods and stain remover my wife packed.

But I had no idea how to use the washing machines!

Well, that's an exaggeration, but a four-compartment tray with no labeling confronted me with the potentially show-stopping dilemma of where to put the detergent pod.

So I photographed the tray, plugged it into Google Image Search, and got the answer I needed. The next guy to show up appreciated the hint and laughed about how I got the information.

Image by the author. Copying permitted.

2. Shortly after we moved into our house in New Orleans, my daughter came to me in tears and holding a tiny green mister that she'd gotten from Girl Scout Camp a couple of years before in Florida.

She'd dropped and broken it and was convinced it couldn't be replaced. Using the sub-optimal photograph of it at right, I was impressed when Image Search zeroed in on just the object and instantly found it.

For a few bucks, an identical replacement, sans logo, arrived at our doorstep a few days later.

3. My mother's neighbor had acquired an interesting vintage car and had parked it in his carport across the street. She sent a photo and asked her three sons what it was.

I know a lot less about cars than they do, but was able to learn that it was probably a Buick Super from the 1940's.

4. Back to Europe...

We'd just toured the Catacombs of San Calisto in Rome and were waiting for an Uber to return us to the hotel.

Two types of tree really stand out when you've been in Rome for a little bit, and I had assumed that one of these, which looks a bit like an elongated Christmas tree, was some kind of fir.

My daughter and I were standing under one of these during the wait, and fruit- or cone-like objects -- presumably gnawed on by squirrels -- kept falling, one of them pelting me on the shoulder.

Eventually, an intact cone fell.

My curiosity piqued, I photographed it and searched, and learned that these "fir" trees were actually Mediterranean cypresses.

Since I was geeking out about trees during our ride anyway, I looked up the other kind that stands out, and learned that the other trees --which look like they'd be at home in a Dr. Seuss book -- are stone pines.

-- CAV

P.S. The Uber belatedly reminded me of my initally jet-lagged ride to the catacombs: There's nothing quite like riding shotgun in an Italian taxi to wake oneself up in the morning!