The internet is a weird place

For the past week I have been unable to access the New York Times from my computer, through either Firefox or Safari.

For about half a day I gave them the benefit of the doubt, thinking maybe there was increased traffic and their server had given up in despair. (Which didn't really make sense anyway, because I was always trying to access it at like 4am New York time.) But after a day, I decided that that was ridiculous, and I also wanted to read Roger Cohen's recent op-ed about the Middle East that everyone was talking about, and the Gail Collins one where she rips into both the Dems and the GOP, because that's always entertaining. (I'd link, but uh, yeah, it's broken.)

Then I tried a proxy server. It worked perfectly. I have now been reading the New York Times through a proxy server for the better part of this week. (This is funny because people mostly use these things to get around firewalls at work or privately look at porn. I'm using it to read the news - I feel like I'm in China, or perhaps Iran, or something.)

I have no idea what I did to block my computer (not just my browser, it's Firefox and Safari, and I very rarely use the latter) from accessing the New York Times website, and I have no idea how to undo it. And honestly, what a random website to be blocked from! But whatever, at least I have my news back.

Sometimes the internet is a strange place.