I've seen lots of bloggers post their search terms for a laugh, but I've never done it. Until now.

Here are some of the most recent Google searches that brought people here, according to my Sitemeter.

• hot tub girl


• jessica alba feet (from Italian Google)


• imus & andy joke


• nancy sun, naked


• cher 2007


• crazy subaru


• strappy shoes (from British Google)


• fortune cookie


• favorite flowers of marie antoinette


• brittany goes


• hot nude blondes videos (which took them here, to a post I called "Hardball Hardon")


• sexy naked (which took them, coincidentally, to the same post)


• hot naked stuff (you guessed it, same post)


• brad p (which yielded this bit of comedy)


• rosie o'donald coors beer (ha! they misspelled it like I do!)


• ugly bird (which led hilariously, to this picture)


• lindsay lohan's email- address (lol, I'll never be rid of 'em)


• ugly fucking bird (haha! love the emphasis)


• how to make a dna model


• pregnant babes (an image search, which led to who else? Brittany)


• kirsten dunst being beheaded in marie antoinette


• sarah james is a fashion designer even though shes a poet and she dont know cuz her toes show it cuz theyre longfellows:-

Posted by: annika at 06:04 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I treasure all the correspondence I've had with y'all over the last four years, and I really mean it. I know not all readers participate in the comments section and it's nice to get e-mails from those whom we bloggers affectionately call "lurkers." You're like Nixon's "silent majority." I know you're there, and I'm glad.

I often suspect there are some famous lurkers who occasionally cruise my blog. At the beginning, before his Townhall re-design, Hugh Hewitt had me on his blogroll. That was an honor which I knew I did not deserve, but which gave me a lot of pride while it lasted. Anyways, even if Professor Hewitt didn't read me regularly, I'm pretty sure Duane did, which still qualifies as a "brush-with-fame" in my book.

Another big name who came here once, after reading my most infamous blog entry, was New York Post columnist John Podhoretz. He wrote me a very short e-mail that said simply "You crack me up." That was way cool.

Casca once told me he thinks Laura Ingraham reads me, but I'm not yet convinced. Michelle Malkin routinely ignores me, and has never deigned to put me on her blogroll (which for the life of me I can't understand, since that freak Schlussel is on there), but that's okay. I love Malkin anyway.

And to this day, I suspect that Wonkette stole one of my rubrics.

But of all the lurkers and quasi-lurkers that have come here to read my nonsense, there is one whose email makes me most proud.

To set the scene. It's the afternoon of November 2nd, 2004. Faulty (and I believe fraudulent) exit polls have just been leaked and posted by Drudge, which show John Kerry leading George W. Bush in several must-win states. For weeks, the MSM has been predicting a Kerry victory. Now it seems true and conservatives are panicked. It looks like that jackass is going to be president.

In that atmosphere, I wrote this post.

A week later I got the following e-mail:

you and hugh hewitt are the only two who helped keep my anxiety in check during pre election days. i'm embarrassed at my lack of confidence. the urge to find drudge and bitch slap him still burns in me. thenks for the encouraging words. . . . there's enough smart pretty cynical woman pundits, your writing is honest and funny w/out trying to sound clever or too sarcastic. keep it nice and real
best,
Mike

So as I prepare to join the ranks of lurkers in about 24 days, may I say to all the lurkers at this blog, thank you for visiting!

Posted by: annika at 07:51 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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I'm doing some email account housecleaning, and here's something I wrote a long time ago in response to a question from someone who was just starting a blog. It may have been Ted's daughter Mookie, actually. Although she's so smart she never really needed my advice.

This may not be terribly interesting for most of you, but rather than just delete it forever, here it is: more...

Posted by: annika at 11:17 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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One of the things I've learned about blogging is that there are many different kinds of bloggers. Some bloggers are born great, some have greatness thrust upon them. Other bloggers find their niche and end up workin' it like a supermodel. Still others suck eggs and always will. And some are just freakin' scary. But the one thing all bloggers have in common is that they start small and hope to get big someday. Or so I thought.

"The day I killed a blog" happened early in my career, when I was young and altruistic. Thanks to the generosity of a few big bloggers, I'd achieved some moderate success moving up the Ecosystem, (which has since diminished) and I thought it would be nice to spread the love. Pay it forward, like the movie says.

So when I came across a brand new blog, down at the unicellular microbe level of the Ecosystem, I thought I'd give the blogger a boost by linking to one of her more interesting posts. She was new, seemed like a nice lady, and though not the best writer around, I thought she could improve with some exposure. I, in my benevolence, decided to give her that exposure. I chose to link to a post in which her thesis was, "I'm a liberal but I support the Iraq War." (This was back in the day when one could say that type of thing with a straight face.)

I sent the chick some traffic, that was true. But unfortunately she couldn't handle the attention. Being a liberal who supports the war is not a prescription for attracting friendly commenters. Apparently there was enough variety in her viewpoints to piss off everybody who went there. I didn't actually get a chance to read any of the constructive criticism that I funnelled to her comments section, because her site was taken down after about a day of abuse. In the words of Carl the gardener, she quit the game.

So that was how I killed a blog. I love my commenters. You're the only reason I kept this thing going for so long, and I look upon this blog experience as a four year conversation with some really neat people. But when I linked to that little blog, I felt a bit like Hernán Cortés meeting the Indians. You're all a pretty exuberant bunch and some folks just don't have the natural immunities necessary for blogging. Some folks get a readership and then realize they didn't really want to be read in the first place.

Do I feel bad about what happened? Probably not, because although lots of people can say they started a blog, I can say that I killed a blog too.

Posted by: annika at 10:29 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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Go wish a happy blogiversary to Preston, Smantix and Cranky at Six Meat Buffet, who are three and even occasionally act like it.

And keep in mind that though annika's journal may will come to an end in 31 days, when the bar* is over you'll be able to find me again at the Buffet! (Thanks to the generosity and/or foolishness of Preston Taylor Holmes!)
_______________

* July 24th through 26th.

Posted by: annika at 06:53 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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John Hawkins' latest poll.

Posted by: annika at 09:52 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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