Links - Our Favorite Surfing Spots

The Usual Disclaimer: 

Just because we like these does not mean you will. That's why there's a back button and a favorites button.

Some of these sites require registration, but as far as we know, none charge for access. Some do have charges for special services. A few are recommended commercial products. Report bad links here.

--Dick Estel

Personal Links

Slate: Politics, popular culture, news analysis, with crisp, clever writing.

TV Guide: Schedules, previews, and TV Guide merchandise, including back issues

Webshots: These folks give you a free screensaver and let you download additional photos from a collection of thousands.

The official website of the Skeptics Society...your pathway to critical thinking, where everything must pass under the magnifying glass of scrutiny.

Freedom from Religion Foundation - protecting the constitution and promoting humanity

Snopes: Ever wonder if those breathless emails warning of impending doom or excoriating some politician for cursing America have any basis in truth? This is the place to find out

You better listen to your heart and check out the official Tom Petty web site!

TV Episode Guide: A fantastic source for episode listings of TV shows old and new. Many have plot synopses; most give extensive cast information.

How would you like to look up almost any artist, past or present; read a biography, see a list of their albums complete with song titles, and find out what albums by other artists they've performed on? All Music Guide is the answer.

Vintage Singers: Links to information mostly about vocal groups.

Steve Simels: Read and learn about rock and pop records you love and ones you never heard of, with lots of song links. Steve was reviewer for Stereo Review magazine for many years in the late 20th Century

Sea World: Fun and education; a site with lots of pictures and information about animals, both in and out of the water.

If you don't know who Nero Wolfe is, check out this site, then get yourself to a book store and pick up one of the 30+ books Rex Stout wrote about the gourmet detective from 1934 to 1975.

Zip Codes: Links to find codes by location or code number.

Area Codes: Links to telephone area code

Area Code Map: Codes by location, plus maps of each code area

Astronomy resources for kids: All about telescopes, stargazing and related matters

Music Links: Our own page with a bunch more music-related links.

Bluegrass Links: Another of our projects, with bluegrass artists, festivals and more.

Hockey Links: Still more of our favorite links to our favorite sport.

The British Library: The national library of the UK and one of the world's greatest libraries. Contains over 16 million books and periodical volumes.

The Library of Congress. Over two centuries of records, photos and whatnot.

Atomic Magazine: Daily news postings, articles, reviews, a calendar of cool happenings, all with a retro theme.

Photos and information from Yosemite National Park.

Both Sides Now: Reports on and ratings of reissues of vintage pop and rock music, with an emphasis on stereo. Lots of good info free on the web site.

National Wildlife Federation: Photos, news and all the stuff you'd expect.

Get Mad, and glad: A collection of Mad Magazine stuff and links (the page is headed "Dick's Mad Stuff," but it's some other Dick, not me).

Bokonanism, the only religion that makes sense (and not much at that). Read all about it in Kurt Vonnegut's classic Cat's Cradle. 

Piranha Club: We discovered this very off kilter comic strip in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Read more about it here.

Dave Barry: The official blog of America's number one humor columnist.

British Museum: Six-and-a-half million objects ranging in size from shards to colossal statues.

Hearst Museum of Anthropology: Photographic access to this UC Berkeley facility's collection of over three million objects, photos, etc

US Automobile Museums: Map showing locations of auto and motor sport museums in the USA, plus individual listings for each state

Over the Hedge: Just over your hedge a raccoon, a turtle (often accuse of being an iguana) and other creatures make their living by "visiting" your place when your back is turned

Calvin & Hobbes: Re-runs, but always worth reading again. Also available on line: Bloom County and Peanuts.

Pearls Before Swine: A whimsical entry, now in our comic top ten.

Sherman's Lagoon: If you've seen the screen saver, you've gotta check out the comic. And if not, hunt down the screen saver too.

Lio: Too strange to describe, too great to miss. Newly discovered by me about 2017, but it's been around for around for a couple of decades. It's become a bit predictable, but check out the older strips.

Frazz: He's a successful songwriter, an avid bike rider, and the janitor at Bryson Elementary, where he dispenses (and exchanges) wisdom with some above average kids. Another school-based comic that's above average is Big Nate.

Mexikid Stories: A sharp and funny look at Mexican and US cultural differences (currently on hiatus, but there are several years of re-runs)

My Cage: The humans have been wiped out, and the animals are now in charge of civilization. Spoiler alert: They don't do any better than we did. The strip no longer appears in newspapers; the link takes you to a subscription page. Please support smart comics!

Crabgrass: New strips are "coming soon," but the link takes you back to the beginning of this charming tale of a black & white friendship. The latter will lead you into trouble and temptation

Project Gutenberg: "The Project Gutenberg Philosophy is to make information, books and other materials available to the general public in forms a vast majority of the computers, programs and people can easily read, use, quote, and search." Contains ASCII text files of public domain documents ranging from the Constitution to the Bible.

Kinky Friedman: Musician, author, cigar smoker, gubernatorial candidate. Composer of such lilting pop favorites as "Ride 'Em Jewboy." Kinky is the right name.

Suck Daily: Whimsical comments on the passing scene. Not updated since 2001, but still some good stuff if you haven't seen it.

David Pogue Technical Column: There must be hundreds of computer and tech gadget columns, but this one on Yahoo is one of the best

Sierra Sun-Times: News of Mariposa and Madera County (central Sierra Nevada) foothills.

Tucows Shareware Site: One of many places you can find free and shareware programs, but this one has the coolest logo.

Clip Mate: Removes unwanted line breaks (when you paste an Email message into your word processor); saves items that you've copied or cut so you can go back to them; lots of other features. About $35.

MoRUN Sticker Lite: An electronic "post-it" to keep notes and reminders on your desktop, rather than on hard to find little pieces of paper.

The Brights Net: People with a naturalistic world view, free of supernatural and mystical elements.

Blogging the Bible: A fascinating tour through the old testament with Slate's David Plotz.

Terra Galleria: Some of the finest photos I've ever seen.

Ken Rockwell: Outstanding photos plus a ton of photographic advice

Clayton & Melinda Walker's Travel Blog & Photos: Well written reports on a half dozen trips all over the country, with great photos

Butch's Wild Rides: More travel reports, from the feline point of view

Dr. Demento: The official playlist archive, plus many Dr. D-related links

Learning to Share: A treasury of pop culture, music, album covers and much more

Tony Hillerman: Probably my favorite author over the last 10 years or so, he gave us the outstanding Navajo detective characters Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. After Tony's death, his daughter Anne continued the series with good results.

Encyclopedia of Life: An ambitious project to create an online reference source and database for each of the 1.8 million species that are named and known on this planet.

Stuff on My Cat: It's easier for you to just click on it than for me to try to explain it

Warner Brothers Movie Archives: Buy movies that have not been formally released on DVD

U.C. Berkeley California Photos: Data base of thousands of California photos

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster: A logical alternative to Intelligent Design

Free Download Center: Get a different commercial program free every day

Dark Roasted Blend: Subheaded "weird and wonderful things," this site defies description, and will help you put off working on that report for a few hours 

James Randi Educational Foundation: Another good site for skeptics and those in need of a dose of reality

Skilled Nursing Facilities: Find nursing homes in any state

WeTransfer: Transfer large files that choke your friends in-box via the Internet. Free, but they will try to sell you stuff, which you can easily decline.

Dave's Computer Tips: Links to all kinds of useful computer info. Sign up for a weekly Email

St. Jude Children's Hospital: My favorite charity; doing great work curing cancer in kids

Fire Science Education: Information on becoming a firefighter, fire safety, etc.

National Interagency Fire Center: Latest news on wildfires throughout the country

Mariposa County Economic Development Corporation

Heart Healthy Foods (American Cancer Society)

Watch for more links one of these days.