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Bill Recommends

These are my current favorite web sites (aside from my own, of course). Check them out.

The Normaned Railroad. Here's how the editor of the ATA Handbook 138, World Railways Philatelic stays sane. Clever and entertaining, even if you're not a model railroader.

Rotten Tomatoes - Find out what ALL the movie reviewers think about the new flicks, and the old ones. This is the first place I look before plunking down a fortune to go to a theater. If it gets less than 60% on the Tomato Meter, I wait for the video.

Google - The only search engine I every use any more. No clutter, no ads, just the right answers.

The USPS web site - Either www.usps.gov or www.usps.com will take you there. You can look up ZIP codes, find how much it will cost to mail something, see and buy stamps. (BUT try www.usps.org)

What's playing at the movies (SF Bay Area only) - The San Francisco Chronicle web site has the quickest, simplest way to find where and when it's playing. No ads or clutter.

What's playing on the boob tube - Zap2it (or is it Canoe? Or Jam!? Whatever, it's good) lets you create a customized grid for your own local cable system. I'm too cheap to buy a newspaper or magazine with the schedules, so this lets me find out how little there is to see without even turning on the set.

abebooks.com - find out-of- print books, cheap. This site consolidates many others into a single source. Essential.

alibris - another book site, much like abebooks. Some duplication between the two, worth checking both.

BookFinder.com - another book site, much like abebooks. Some duplication, worth checking both.

amazon.com - I avoided them for a long time, lamenting the death of the traditional book store, but time marches on. New books, mostly, but they can get out-of-print titles too.

Powell Books - If you're ever in Portland, OR, you have to spend an afternoon in the Burnside location of this store. It bills itself as the largest new and used book store in the world, and I believe it. Amazing. On the Internet it doesn't matter where they are, of course. I always check their site as well as the three above.

Casey Jones Unit web site - US-based group of rail philatelists. Our web site is somewhat rudimentary at present, but growing slowly. Our web master Horst Brix (see next site, below) is sponsoring a project to catalog all the train-related pictorial cancellations, and has already put several hundred on display. If you are a rail enthusiast, join us!

Trains on stamps - Horst Brix of Germany, one of the most active members of the Casey Jones Rail Road Unit of the ATA (I used to edit the newsletter), has a fantastic site. He seems to be headed for a comprehensive display of all the known stamps with trains, but for now has just the past few years, with all the new issues added regularly. An essential site for rail philatelists.

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