Did you know that the first three characters ever typed on the Internet were L-O-L?

No, this is not a joke. It’s a tiny bit of knowledge identified as interesting by someone who does that all the time: Ira Flatow (right), founder and principle voice of the public radio show Science Friday.

On Oct. 24, he was interviewing Charlie Kline, who entered those (and other) letters on Oct. 29, 1969, but had never himself realized that that was kinda funny. Kline was telling the story of the first test of ARPANET, which became the Internet: He was at UCLA, and as a test run, tried to log into a computer at Stanford Research Center in Palo Alto. There were no names and passwords; to log into this computer, one typed, L-O-G-I-N. Kline said that when he typed L, it appeared on the screen in Palo Alto. Same when he typed O. But then the SRI computer crashed.

After a few minutes for reset, Kline started over and it worked. Flatow saw it immediately: “So, the first characters ever typed were L-O-L?” [L-O [pause] L-O-G-I-N.] 

To me, this wonderfully illustrates the difference between expertise and brightness. Host and executive producer of Science Friday for all its 23 years on the air, Flatow is clearly expert, a preeminent science journalist in America, amazingly conversant on the range of science topics and downright spritely in how he conveys complex information to lay listeners such as me.

But how many times has Kline told the story of this 45-year-old historical footnote, and no one ever put it together? But the lightbulb flashed instantly for Flatow. That’s being bright, IMO.

[Needless footnote of my own: The interview was cast Oct. 24, but I heard it only yesterday, listening to podcasts on the running track. You can find show segments here, or at iTunes.]