What do these ten things have in common? We'll give you a minute.
Dum-de-doo-doo-dee. . . .
Give up? As of the writing of this entry, these were "Today's Top Searches" on Yahoo!
We always see this "top searches" list, but we've never given it much thought. On the one hand, it provides a snapshot of the zeitgeist: A look at this list gives one a sense of where the collective consciousness resides. On the other hand, there's something a bit. . . tautological about the list. If a subject appears in the "top searches," does that not lead people to click on that subject, if only to see what the fuss is all about? Especially when it is not immediately apparent WHY something is being searched?
Consider today's list: "Michael Jackson Tributes" is unsurprising. We heard that Jennifer Hudson performed at today's Jackson tribute, which probably inspired interest in her. Did John Mayer perform, too? See, we don't know, and, if he didn't, why does he show up in today's top-search list? So we have to look. One sec. Well, no, no immediate indication that he did perform. Then again, from what we know about John Mayer as a self-promoter, it wouldn't surprise us if he had somehow worked out a way to keep himself in the top ten perpetually.
Celebrity mugshots? Well, earlier, when we first contemplated this post, we saw that "Joyce DeWitt" was in the top searches. That stunned us: Joyce DeWitt hasn't done anything notable since serving as the perpetually dumpy roommate through every episode of blonde (to borrow a phrase from Elvis Costello) on "Three's Company." Which is essentially to say she hasn't done anything notable EVER, but that's a whole 'nother concern. At any rate, when we investigated, we found out that DeWitt had been arrested for DUI, and this presumably generated interest. We're going to assume that "Celebrity Mugshots" is just an outgrowth of that. Now things get interesting:
From the "Who" files:
Shaheen Jafargholi: OK, it's a Michael Jackson thing. He's some Welsh kid who was a finalist on "Britain's Got Talent," and he sang at the Jackson tribute.
Rupert Grint: He plays Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movies. And he apparently has Swine Flu. Well, Innoculatus!
Jeremy Mayfield: A NASCAR driver who was suspended for testing positive for drugs. A judge overturned the suspension, and other NASCAR drivers want the judge to reconsider. Can't say we blame them. We'd be concerned about going around a track at 180 MPH with a crack addict. (No, he didn't test positive for crack.)
Now for the "Why" files:
Charlie Chaplin's Smile: We have NO idea.
King Herod: Apparently Israeli archaeologists have made some new King Herod-related discoveries.
Acetaminophen: We're going to go out on a limb here and try to answer this without looking. We think this has something to do with an FDA Advisory Panel's recent decision to ban Vicodin.
Is an ability to interpret the "Top 10" a sign of pop-culture literacy? If so, the Solipsist is not doing so well. Our literacy score for today was a mere 30%--we knew what was significant about 3 of the 10 search items (or, if not "significant," at least "buzzworthy"). We don't know how this score stacks up against others'--perhaps the fact that so much searching occurred suggests that most people are no more informed than the Solipsist. Still, we feel we should do better. For the next seven days, we're going to test our pop-culture recognition by seeing how many of the top-10 items we can interpret without clicking. We'll see what our "baseline" knowledge is. After all, you folks COUNT on the Solipsist to keep you in the know. We'd hate to let you down.
And if anyone can shed light on the Charlie Chaplin thing, that would be appreciated.
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