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 Most Useful Reference Sites!

Know When to Plant: The Old Farmer's Almanac
Whether you're an overall-wearing, tobacco-chewing real McCoy, or more of a back-to-the-Earth weekend country dweller, you'll find wisdom and old-timey advice at The Old Farmer's Almanac. Learn the significance of red-letter days, and read next month's weather predictions.

Answer Financial Queries: Financenter.com ClickCalcs
Along with standard tools, like aids for calculating mortgages, you'll find slick exchange rate gadgets for evaluating your foreign stocks. Mais, oui!

Choose the Perfect Pet: AOL's Pets Decision Guide
If your kid wants to get a Great Dane, but your already crowded apartment is better suited to a hermit crab, consult AOL's Pets Decision Guide for wisdom in making a tears-free compromise. Plug in your preferences concerning size, smell, maintenance, and personality, among other variables, and this impartial decision-maker will tell you what type of domesticated critter is best suited to your lifestyle and environs.

See Into the Future: World News Forecast
There are plenty of news sites that tell you what's already happened, but what if you need to know what's going to happen? You could hire a fortuneteller, or you could check at World News Forecast, a site that tells you about world events a month ahead of time. You'll learn about upcoming political and cultural events on each continent. Never miss a space launch again! If you'd like news for a full year ahead of time, you can subscribe (for a fee) to the YearAhead Calendar here, too.

Answer a Trivia Question: Infoplease.com
What is the state flower of Alabama? You'll find the answer to such basic (yet puzzling) questions as this at Infoplease.com, the online version of the enduring reference guide Information Please. Most useful is its Fact Finder, a searching tool you get to keep at your virtual side as you browse the Web. (Oh-the answer is, of course, the camellia.)

Look Up a Word: OneLook
OneLook is the metasearcher of the dictionary world. Type in any word, and instead of searching just a single volume OneLook will probe its huge list of specialized and general dictionaries to give you the most comprehensive group of definitions.

Look Up a Foreign Word: A Web of On-line Dictionaries
OneLook is the metasearcher of the dictionary world. Type in any word, and instead of searching just a single volume OneLook will probe its huge list of specialized and general dictionaries to give you the most comprehensive group of definitions.

Translate Your Correspondence: Babelfish
Write a letter to your faraway relatives in English, then convert it to your grandparents' mother tongue with AltaVista's Babelfish translation service. Be advised: Machine translations can still yield humorously incorrect results. To make sure you get your points across, don't use too many idiomatic phrases.

Track Your Politicians: My Government
Take My Government-please! Plug your ZIP code into this handy feature on the America Online Web site, and you'll find out your state and federal representatives, as well as their recent key votes. If you don't want to use the fax or phone numbers you find here, don't sweat it-there's also an e-mail form so you can voice your opinions immediately.

Sound Off to an Elected Official: Mr. Smith Emails...
In 1939's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Jimmy Stewart's character did just that-he went to D.C. and ended up having his say in the Senate. But this isn't Hollywood, and it is almost the 21st century. The 1999 Web version of Mr. Smith-Mr. Smith E-Mails…-provides all the online forms you'll need to sound off to the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives simultaneously, without boarding a bus or even licking a stamp. And when the politicians won't listen, there are also forms for selected newspapers, magazines, and TV networks.

Get Government Statistics: FedStats
The truth is out there. You might not be able to confirm an alien contact, but at FedStats you will find just about any bit of government statistical data that is public knowledge, on topics ranging from agriculture to transportation.

Learn Anything: Learn2.com
They tried hard, but your parents somehow managed not to show you how to clean silverware. Come to think of it, you never learned how to serve wine, drive a car with a stick shift, play chess, or fight jet lag, either. Save the resentments for your therapy session, but catch up on lessons lost at Learn2.com. Hmmm, so that's what a "first down" is!

Figure Out How Much Time is Left: Internet Clocks, Counters, and Countdowns
Want to know how many days left until Thanksgiving? Paul Nagai's Internet Clocks, Counters, and Countdowns site has the answer. The Web has timers of all types, and Paul links to darn near all of them. So if you want to find out how long you'll have to wait until the next Halloween, or how close to doomsday the atomic scientists think we are, or the size of the national debt (updated every second), you'll find it here. Hurry up and check it out! Time's a-wastin'.

Spice Things Up: Spice Encyclopedia
No, the Spice Encyclopedia has nothing to do with Baby, Posh, Sporty, or Scary. Rather, it has to do with those little tins that sit in your kitchen cabinet. Which spice goes in what dish? You could experiment on your own, but it might be safer to read the appropriate entry here first. Choose your spice from the lists and you'll get a quick history of that spice, storage tips, and ideas for using it in your cooking. Even if you're just heating up a can of soup, add a spice or two from the suggestions here and you can pretend that you're Julia Child.

Fly the Right Flag: World Flag Database
If you're trying to draw the Italian flag, but instead you render Ireland's pattern and color, you need to consult the World Flag Database. Search by country name to get flag images and some handy facts along the way. The site smartly includes the flags of such organizations as the United Nations and OPEC, as well as ensigns and flags of republics within larger countries. Bet you didn't know that more than 15 countries can shout, "Three cheers for the red, white and blue!" Now you do.

Grab the Perfect Gear: ReviewFinder
Buying electronic gear or computer hardware and software is tricky business; even propellerheads can get stuck with a lemon that's a poor performer, incompatible with other products, or just doesn't work. ReviewFinder can't guarantee you a lemon-free existence, but it can help you learn more about the gear in which you're interested. Type in the name of the computer hardware, software, or consumer-electronics product you want to buy, and it gives you a list of links to reviews of that product online. Check out each one to get a well-rounded assessment of the product, instead of one reviewer's bias. Then decide whether that car CD player is worth the investment.

Dig Up a Biography: Lives, the Biography Resource
We're big fans of Biography.com, but Lives, the Biography Resource is another great place to read up on the famous, infamous, and not-so-famous. You'll find not only a profile of Albert Einstein but also some good words on the lesser-known, but quite notable, jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler. LTBR's pages link to thousands of sites, and many of its biographies are smartly grouped into collections dedicated to specific professions or eras.

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