Wikipedia is just an incredible thing. It is fact-encirclingly huge and it is idiosyncratic careful messy funny shocking and full of simmering controversies - and it is free and it is fast.
I'll never forget one morning I walked in and I had a hell of a bruise - it had been a difficult night the night before - and a client said to me 'Good God Vidal what happened to your face?' And I said 'Oh nothing madam I just fell over a hairpin.'
