THIS WEEK

Thanks-surfing: So autumn is officially here. Can you tell? The Web has a host of sites that can make Thanksgiving planning easier. One of the most comprehensive Thanksgiving sites is Butterball.com (https://www.butterball.com). You can e-mail their experts with your holiday questions, find tips for the perfect gravy, or play some online games to de-stress your holiday-harried mind.

Reader’s Digest launched a special Thanksgiving Web site, complete with games for kids, recipes and advice for coping with unwanted house guests. The site, at https://www.rdthanksgiving.com, also has vegetarian menus, centerpiece ideas and regional customs.

At Aristotle’s Thanksgiving on the Web (https://www.aristotle.net/thanksgiving/thanks.htm), you can submit your favorite Thanksgiving memories or the story of how your family first came to America.

CYBERSPACE

* Parachuting to Obscurity: It was 26 years ago today that D.B. Cooper hijacked a plane and parachuted away with $250,000, never to be heard from again. At https://www.tridentgroup.com/dbcooper.htm, there is a detailed explanation of what happened and why it can’t happen again, at least the way Cooper did it. For a composite sketch of Cooper, check out https://www.ieway.com/~csukbr/sketch/coop.html. D.B. Cooper’s Drop Zone (https://www.customcpu.com/personal/dbcooper/dbcooper.htm) has a first-person account of where Cooper went after he jumped. (Think “X-Files.”)

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* Twain Time: If Mark Twain had lived, he would be celebrating his 162nd birthday Sunday. Ever the Twain Shall Meet (https://www.lm.com/~joseph/mtwain.html) has online versions of Twain’s books and essays, both to read online or to download. Famous Twain quotes are at https://www.tarleton.edu/activities/pages/

facultypages/schmidt/Mark_Twain.html. The site also has newspaper articles and links. For information about the Mark Twain Papers and Project at UC Berkeley, head to https://library.berkeley.edu/BANC/MTP/

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* Mr. TNT: It was this week in the late 1800s that Alfred Nobel (of Nobel Prize fame) invented dynamite. Shockwave Hits the Web (https://www.interlog.com/~snake/shockwave.html) has a history of all things that go boom. At https://theodore-sturgeon.mit.edu:8001/peacejam/nobel.html, there’s an excerpt from Nobel’s will--the part that established the Nobel Prize. And the Nobel Foundation itself can be found online at https://www.nobel.se/index.html

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* Food for Thought: A list of the 500 dirtiest and the 500 cleanest Los Angeles eateries, based on L.A. County Health Department inspection scores from July 1995 to July 1997, is now online at https://www.channel2000.com/news/stories/news-971117-191555.html.Check to see what restaurants in your area don’t make the grade.

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* Holiday Exchanges: If you’re planning to get away for the holidays, you might want to stop by the Currency Converter (https://www.oanda.com/cgi-bin/ncc). The site provides up-to-date exchange rates for 164 currencies. You can set your preferences to account for a commission and remember your preferred language. The site is especially helpful if you’re planning to visit more than one country.

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Site suggestions can be sent to cutting.edge@latimes.com