But this week I decided to really make an effort and sort through the past five years of columns. Here now (with more to come Wednesday and Friday) is my list of the best of the best. By way of explaining the diversity of styles, designs, amount of content and use of what we'll call all the available "bells and whistles,'' I'll justify my choices by repeating, these are just the ones that for some reason caught my attention and won me over. On my personal scale, these would all be 10's.

•  http://mysteries.mysterynet.com -- Feb. 2, 1999: "This site has a little bit of everything for the mind that loves a mystery. ... There are mini mysteries to solve. After you tackle today's tale, a click takes you to the armchair detective archive where you'll find past puzzles aplenty." Today: All this is still true and the site's offerings just continue to grow. I'm a sucker for any mystery with a good twist to it, and this site serves them up by the score.

•  www.blackbaseball.com -- March 2, 1999: "If it has to do with the old Negro baseball leagues, you'll find it at this site. This address takes you to a home page stuffed with articles, details and descriptions. -- You'll find stories, photos, interviews, biographies and historic facts on a busy but well-designed site." Today: The content is still here and the site has been completely redesigned to be so much easier to view and navigate. Have you ever heard of Louis Santop? I hadn't, so I was amazed to read he had a 17-year career and finished with a lifetime batting average of .406. Now THAT's baseball.

•  www.micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures -- April 13, 1999: "It seems all sorts of creatures and other doodlings were artistically added by engineers as they designed computer chips that lurk in nearly everything we use these days. This site offers dozens of photomicrographs (photographs taken through a microscope) that make these charming hidden artworks visible for the first time." Today: There are dozens more entries in the Silicon Zoo, my favorite section of this site. But a new addition offers a microscopic color visual of all kinds of fragrances, from colognes to spices. This stuff fascinates me still.

•  http://unmuseum.mus.pa.us/roton.htm -- Dec. 31, 1999: "Investigate the bizarre. Visit the Museum of Unnatural Mystery. View the Lost Worlds exhibition, study a collection of odd archaeology or join the Virtual Exploration Society." Today: Still superb. Exploring this site was the perfect way to enter the 21st century. Revisiting was just as incredible. If you love things beyond the ordinary, discovering treasures in long-forgotten attics or looking though old dusty barns filled with the collections of a century or two, I promise you'll enjoy this glimpse at history.

•  www.cincypost.com/living/2000/sites012600.html -- Jan. 26, 2000: "Ephemera is the technical term assigned to collectible paper goods. Perhaps best known are the old-time baseball cards. But never doubt, there are folks out there who'll collect just about anything you can think of -- even some things that certainly were never intended to be kept." Today: I couldn't choose just one of these, so I'm giving you the URL to The Post's archive of the entire column. Read and see collections of wine labels, candy wrappers, cigarette packages, firecracker wrappers and yes, even air sickness bags.

Jan Perry is a Kentucky-based writer who likes writing about the Web more than about any other topic. Send questions or suggestions to her at SiteSeer2K@aol.com.