No help with school assignments, no answers to factual stuff that's easy to find on the web. He won't answer trivia questions, and he won't read your screenplay. He's telling us that he cannot provide the level of service expected of a good servant. And so, by casting old material in a new medium, the web sharpens the metaphor of mentors and servants. Once there, it awakens new expectations.
Technology often does that.
Typewriters were no simple replacement for pens, nor airplanes for automobiles. Now and then, a new technology sets us off on an entirely new road. And when it does, we're all left just a little bit breathless. My thanks to Julie Grob, UH Library, who triggered this program when she pointed me to the Ebert web page.