Googled

I was conversing with a friend and associate. He suggested I Google myself. No, nothing like that – search with my name, see what comes up. His point? There at the top of the page, right where you want it, The Last Turn Clubhouse, the current web literary (sure, auto racing articles aren’t exactly literature – indulge me) endeavor.

It’s interesting who else turns up. Kjos isn’t the most common of names (except in Norway and North Dakota, of course), but there are a few who are always there – prominent Kjos’s – at least on the web.

Heading the list is Lee Thomas Kjos, a famed puppy photographer. If you could pick a warm and fuzzy career, how about that one? I’ve known about sheet music publisher Neil A. Kjos Music Company since I got my saxophone in the fourth grade.

Then there’s Berit Kjos, who writes books and articles under the rubric Kjos Ministries. She was quick to go after poor Harry Potter for using his witchcraft in a plot to undermine God. “The Harry Potter books and movies are merely the beginning -- the first enticing steps into the world of dark arts and deceptive lures,” she writes in an article about the insidious Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Best I can figure out, she’s running her own religion. What a gig.

The real comeuppance is when I Google my own kids. There’s a professional profile in a networking site for the paralegal (now law student) a Minnesota Public Radio article, and reviews of stage performances in Los Angeles and the Twin Cities. A feature film doesn’t appear. Her younger sister dominates a page with an article for the Columbia University magazine, some related articles, and movie sites listing feature film Rachel River. Even at that there are magazine articles that don’t appear. Google doesn’t bring up the youngest. Thus far, he’s been able to remain incognito.

They overwhelm (or at least out-Google) me, and they’re just kids. Actually, what I’m going to have to learn is they aren’t. Not any longer.