From the Epicurious Web site

Geezer surfers.

As baby boomers grow older and computers get easier to use, the number of Net-savvy seniors is bound to grow. Sites that cater to the ancients are cropping up all over the place. Some are well-designed and helpful. Others aren't.

The logical starting point for oldsters, of course, is the American Association of Retired Persons Webplace. The site looks like it was put together by, well, by an association. Of all the entry points on the Internet, this one should act as a hot-cocoa welcome center for older, reluctant computer users. It doesn't. The one helpful section, Focus on the Internet, is not on the home page where it belongs, but buried in the Getting Answers area. It begins, "If you made it here, you must know a thing or two about the Internet." In other words, if you can find this Web guide, you probably don't need it.

The AARP site should be retired. Many old folks have discovered more intriguing sites.

Allen Goldberg of Relevant Knowledge, another company that measures net usage, says that 40 percent of those visiting Whitehouse.gov are 50 years old or older. Sites that receive most of their traffic from oldsters include:

Park Net, the smart and understated Web spot of the National Park Service. The site features, among many other things, a geological tour of various parks and the Yellowstone watercolors of Thomas Moran, a 19th-century painter. Moran's works were used by nature lovers to convince Congress in 1916 that a national parks system should be created for Airstream owners of the future.

Epicurious, the food and travel site of Conde Nast. The site is lively with helpful (and playful) information for folks who like takeout. You can get tips for planning family-style meals or for plotting your escape from family-style meals to places like St. Louis, where the Damson plums are sweet and the Missouri Honey Rock cantaloupes are thumping-good.

Discovery, the wild and woolly Web site of the Discovery Channel. This is a dazzling, sometimes dizzying, display of natural facts and forays. Visitors can check in on expeditions around the world; live cameras fixed on sharks, a whale and an orangutan and an ingenious online enterprise called Mind Games. The most recent contest challenges you to name the person who provides a human link between Harry Houdini and William Randolph Hearst. This is one hepcat site that old folks can share with the young.

Sharing with her kids is important to Alan Goldberg's mother, Phyllis, 63, who lives in North Bethesda and spends at least an hour online every day. She loves to do family research at Jewish Genealogy, which she calls "a fantastic Web site."

Like many folks – old and young – Phyllis Goldberg is using the technology of the future to explore her rich and complex past. Linton Weeks can be reached at weeksl@washpost.com

CLICK: Effect of ale, garlic, and soured cream on the appetite of leeches    One day, someone arbitrarily decreed that a little garlic each day keeps vampires away. Science disagrees. According to a recent study, leeches gorge on garlic, then shrivel up and die. The conclusion for vampires is obvious. Wearing a string of garlic at night is like setting up a roach motel. Vampires may check in, but only after your blood checks out. – Dan Pacheco

Surfing Perturbations, pleasures and predicaments on the I-way

Buy Tom Hanks! Sell Madonna!
The ultimate site for movie fans, the Hollywood Stock Exchange lets you invest "Hollywood dollars" in the careers of actors/actresses and the revenue generated by new movies.

You can choose movies in concept (are we really ready for "The Monica Lewinsky Story"?), development, production, and in current release. Each movie has, when known, a plot summary, cast list, and research on its predecessors' performance. Mimicking a real stock market, the Exchange also lets you invest in mutual funds, Initial Public Offerings, and studio index funds; read a simulated Wall Street Journal; schmooze with other investors; and be mesmerized by an unending stock ticker. Several subsidiary web sites have developed to provide inside information to Exchange investors. — Edward F. Mickolus

Hum a Few Bars & We'll Tap Along
It's Karen Carpenter's fault. Before the pop songbird picked up sticks and sat down behind a set of silver Ludwigs, the drum throne was an almost exclusively male domain.

Today, there are enough gals keeping time that the "Drummergirl" site can spotlight more than an alphabet-full of them – from 16-year-old Liz Adams of the Peeps to Yoshimi of the Boredoms.

The site seeks to give exposure not found in mainstream music magazines. "It is comforting to know that you are not alone in the testosterone-filled abyss of drumming," writes site creator Donna. Ba-da-boom. — Dave Nuttycombe