After all, I did make the offer.

At least three old friends have found me via searches that they ran for various topics that led to hits on the Boidem. One person I didn't know tried to interest me in a book she wrote because I'd (jokingly) referred to sibling rivalry on some now defunct web pages of mine (and of course I wrote about that in the Boidem). Three years ago*, when I offered a box of very dated flashbulbs to whoever might want them, I admit that I didn't expect anyone to take me up on the offer. Certainly not a full three years later. The offer was, after all, hardly an integral, or even significant part of the column. But that's what happened when the following (edited) letter arrived in my inbox:

I would be interested in the package of M3 flashbulbs.
I have a camera, my parents used, that uses M3s.

I didn't even remember just when the offer was from, though it was easy to check. Discovering that it was a three year old offer, I then asked just how my taker had found it (and where to mail them to). The answer was swift in coming:

I did a search on www.google.com for "M3 flashbulbs"
and found your information in the first 20 hits for
flashbulbs. Google has been reported, in PC World, as
the top search engine on the internet, I guess they are
correct.

Just send them to my office, with a return address, and
I'll reimburse you for the postage.

Which I guess proves that to a search engine everyone's information is equal, and that one person's bread is....

He'll get the flashbulbs.

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