They cut the cable

Earlier today I went to the local university to do my weekly dilly-dallying on the internet, only to find that nothing was connected. No email, no nytimes.com, no norwegian newspapers, nothing. Strange, I thought, this is usually such a high speed connection, it has never let me down. I nervously wonder if they finally caught me surfing for free, I am after all visiting the network without an invitation. I try all the tricks I know, and make up some new ones, but finally bite the dust and go to the information counter. Why is it that the internet has seized to work, I ask, nonchalantly in case they are on to me hacking their system. Oh, they cut the cable in Anchorage, was the swift reply, as if this was a daily occurrence, one which doesn't affect anyone at all, when in fact all internet connections in the state seem to come via the two universities in Anchorage and Fairbanks. They cut the cable in Anchorage, a visual comes to mind of some drunk hobo deciding that he’d finally had it with the way of the world and elected himself leader of the coalition to end NASA’s great invention of the Web, starting in Alaska, subsequently digging up the cable that connects the whole state to the world and cutting it with one great snap. They cut the cable in Anchorage. Ohwell...