From the Archives: Former Virginia Secretary of Transportation Shirley Ybarra discusses rail, roads, and HOT lanes

Publisher's note: This article was originally published on Examiner.com on June 25, 2010. The Examiner.com publishing platform was discontinued July 1, 2016, and its web site went dark on or about July 10, 2016. I am republishing this piece in an effort to preserve it and all my other contributions to Examiner.com since April 6, 2010. It is reposted here without most of the internal links that were in the original.

Former Virginia Secretary of Transportation Shirley Ybarra discusses rail, roads, and HOT lanes

Now a senior transportation analyst at the Reason Foundation, Shirley J. Ybarra served as Secretary of Transportation for the Commonwealth of Virginia during the administration of Governor James Gilmore. She previously served as deputy secretary under Governor George Allen.

Ybarra attended a luncheon seminar at the Heritage Foundation in Washington on June 25, where the topic was high speed rail. After the presentation ended, she spoke briefly with the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner on transportation issues facing Virginia.

The biggest single issue she identified is “congestion, particularly in Northern Virginia,” adding that in “the Virginia Beach area, same issues. It’s road congestion, quite honestly.”

To address the congestion problem, Ybarra said, “we’re seeing some solutions in Northern Virginia, with the Beltway HOT lanes and,” eventually, “the I-95/395 corridor HOT lanes.” She noted that those high-occupancy toll lanes are “not just for cars; that puts bus rapid transit on those HOT lanes also.”

High-Speed Rail in Virginia?
As to whether there is a role for high-speed rail (HSR) in Virginia, Ybarra said probably not.

“I think it’s going to be difficult to find a role for high speed rail,” she said. “A project that was started when I was Secretary was something called ‘the Third Rail’ between Washington and Richmond.

“That was because they were using the freight railroad tracks and they needed sidings and a new bridge down by Fredericksburg and that would allow the passenger trains not to be delayed by the very long freight trains like the ‘Juice Train’ that goes through right at the time it’s needed for the VRE service,” that is, the Virginia Railway Express commuter line. VRE, which runs from Manassas in the west and Fredericksburg in the south to downtown Washington, pays “freight railroads for the use of the tracks,” Ybarra explained, “because it is their track.”

McDonnell Administration Efforts
Assessing the successes and failures of the administration of Governor Bob McDonnell in transportation so far, Ybarra said “they are certainly trying to continue with public-private transportation acts, or what the rest of the world calls, public-private ventures, to bring some of the capacity and the private sector into road building,” as well as in transit.

One obstacle facing the McDonnell administration is that has substantially smaller budget “available than I did so they need to bring in the private sector and I know [the governor is] pushing that.” She noted that public-private ventures in transportation were part of McDonnell’s campaign platform and that suggestions to refine that promise have come out of a recent study commissioned by the administration.

Moreover, Ybarra added, McDonnell will be “putting in a dedicated group of people” to study transportation issues, “which we were unable to do when I was there. We all just did our regular job plus that job” of looking into future solutions for transportation problems.

“I think the dedicated group of people will help” in policymaking efforts, she concluded.

Visitor Number 250,000

Another milestone:  Earlier today, someone at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California, became the 250,000th visitor to this blog (according to Sitemeter, which may, some sources say, underestimate actual visits and page views).

Here's a picture of that notable visitor, from 3:56 a.m. on April 17, 2011, more than six years since this blog was launched.

If that's not exciting enough for you, go over to Examiner.com and check out my report on audience reactions to Atlas Shrugged-Part I, the long-awaited movie version of Objectivist philosopher Ayn Rand's 1957 novel.

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Virginia's Political Blog Rankings

In what might be an interesting experiment, blogger Tom White at Virginia Right! has developed three ways of ranking the scope and influence of political blogs based in -- or focusing on -- the Old Dominion.

All such attempts at rankings must be rough around the edges.  White's three categories are (1) dollar value (a concept I'm not too clear on); (2) global ranking; and (3) local ranking.  In each category, he makes a further division between liberal blogs and conservative blogs.

White explains:

I believe the dollar ranking to be the best overall measure as to the reach of a blog. I also believe the dollar values should be taken with a grain of salt as to the actual monetary value, but if taken as “points” as opposed to dollars, it looks to be a pretty good measure.

Any Virginia blog ranking that fails show Not Larry Sabato and Bearing Drift at the top of the charts is, in my opinion, suspect, and fails the sanity check.

These rankings are not intended to offend anyone and are simply reflective of measurements and algorithms developed by someone with no interest in Virginia Politics and completely objective in their calculations.

For what it's worth, this blog (Rick Sincere News and Thoughts) has a "dollar value" of $7,665, for tenth place among all Virginia blogs, just ahead of Black Velvet Bruce Lee and just behind a six-way tie for ninth place. While my dollar value remains the same, my ranking rises to seven among conservative blogs.

Top-dollar-value political blogs in Virginia are Not Larry Sabato ($210,787), Bearing Drift ($109,500), and Vivian Paige (also $109,500).

On the measure called "global ranking," this blog places 37th overall among Virginia political blogs and 23rd among Virginia conservative blogs (global rank: 4,336,918). The top three in global rankings are Vivian Paige (global rank: 226,490), Bearing Drift (rank: 239,458), and Virginia Right! (rank: 292,312).

In terms of "local ranking," this blog is listed 22nd among all Virginia political blogs (local ranking: 712,222) and 14th among Virginia conservative blogs. The top three political blogs by this measure are, once again, Vivian Paige (local rank: 43,245), Bearing Drift (rank: 44,538), and Virginia Right! (rank: 67,745).

The full universe of blogs ranked in these three categories seems to number 73, though I might be misreading that figure.  If so, the number of conservative-leaning blogs is 51 and the number of liberal-leaning blogs is 22.

Although this is a static picture of Virginia's political blogosphere as of January 2, 2011, Tom White says he plans to rerun his survey on a weekly basis. Tune in to Virginia Right! next week and subsequently for results of future horse races.

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Are Lindsay Lohan and Justin Bieber Necessary?

It turns out that writing about Justin Bieber's alleged assault of a 12-year-old boy who (allegedly) called him a "faggot," Lindsay Lohan's choices of nail polish and her evolving mug shots, Paris Hilton's cocaine arrest, or Perez Hilton's oscillating mean spirits is no longer necessary to attract money-earning Web traffic -- if it was ever necessary at all.

Celebrity stories may raise the numbers of visitors, but those visitors are less likely to buy anything, or even look at advertising on a web site or blog.  It's as if a passerby noticed Shia LaBeouf at a sidewalk cafe in Dupont Circle but didn't bother to stroll into the place and order an espresso and a muffin.

The New York Times reports that an analysis by Perfect Market, a media consulting company, finds that hard news stories attract the most profitable traffic to newspaper web sites (and, I would hazard to extrapolate, to news-and-opinion blogs, as well).

According to the Times:

Using data from newspapers including The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Orlando Sentinel, Perfect Market found that the most profitable articles were the ones readers were most engaged with. Topics like unemployment, the egg recall and mortgage rates topped the list.

The reason, Perfect Market analysts explained, was that advertising is more effective when it is paired with news content that is relevant to the product, especially when the subject of the news is something in which readers have a personal interest.

Reporting on the same story, with the alliterative headline "Lindsay Lohan Less Lucrative for News Sites Than Hard News," Advertising Age added:

Newspaper websites get more ad revenue from articles about serious stuff like the Gulf oil spill than from traffic bait like stories on celebrity scandals, according to an analysis by Perfect Market, a company that aims to help publishers become more visible and profitable on the web.

Advertising Age's Nat Ives explained why celebrity-driven stories lack the profit potential of nuts-and-bolts, bread-and-butter topics.

A lot of the difference had to do with automated text ads that are keyed to the content on a page, ads that can be overshadowed by the big display units that newspapers' sales teams typically sell directly. Articles about immigration, for example, are magnets for text ads promoting immigration lawyers.

"The rates paid by advertisers on Google AdSense for immigration-related terms are higher than the celebrity-related stuff like Lindsay Lohan," said Robertson Barrett, chief strategy officer at Perfect Market. Mortgage lenders want to put text ads in front of people reading about mortgages, he said, but there aren't as many advertisers trying to sell celebrity memorabilia.

Jeremy W. Peters in the New York Times offered some actual numbers that demonstrate the profitability of stories about the economy and other "kitchen table" issues.

Perfect Market measured revenue per page view and found that articles about Social Security were the most valuable, generating an average of $129 for 1,000 page views. Articles about mortgage rates made $93 for every 1,000 page views. On other topics, values for every 1,000 page views were $28 for items about unemployment, $33 for articles on jobs, $20 for articles on the egg recall and $26 for pieces on immigration reform.

To be perfectly candid, I still haven't made a dime from Google AdSense in the nearly six years I've been blogging. But at least I know now that I don't have to make gratuitous references to Lady Gaga in order to increase my traffic volume and click-through rates.  (I'll still Tweet about Glee, even though there's no profit in it.)

To my readers, however: please feel free to click on the ads below. Google and I will both be grateful (me more than the Big G).

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Definitely Not a Libertarian

I visited C-VILLE, a Charlottesville weekly newspaper, in my previous post, and I find myself in its pages again.

Speaking about a new law that took effect this month (prohibiting texting on cell phones while driving), a spokesman for AAA says:

“certainly any law is better than no law.”

You'll never hear that statement slip through the lips of a libertarian.

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Going Viral

I realize it's no "David After Dentist" or "Strange Faces and Noises I Can Make III," but these measurements are all relative, aren't they?

What I'm talking about is the sudden burst of YouTube popularity of the videos I posted yesterday -- less than 24 hours ago -- of the address at the Republican Party of Virginia's state convention by recent Virginia Tech graduate Adnan Barqawi, who wowed the crowd with his vigorous articulation about what it means to be an American and the values that should motivate Republican activists and voters.

It took over two years for one of the first videos I posted on YouTube to reach the level of 10,000 views. And that one featured a teen-idol-style celebrity, William Moseley of the Chronicles of Narnia movies.

As of a few minutes ago, the first part of Adnan Barqawi's speech had reached 2,696 views (more than 100 per hour) and the second part had reached 1,377 views. (Really, folks, you have to stay for the whole thing. It's only about 17 minutes long in its entirety.)

The viral nature of this video (again, relatively speaking) has been boosted by mentions on blogs and Tweets on Twitter.

If Adnan Barqawi's speech on YouTube reaches 10,000 views before the end of the week, you'll read about it here.

Update, Friday, 4:08 p.m.: As I predicted, sometime in the past 12 hours, the views of Part I of Adnan Barqawi's speech to the RPV convention reached 10,170; Part II has had 5,861 views.

Update 2: The full text of Adnan Barqari's remarks is now available on the Virginia GOP's web site.

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Have You Found What You're Looking For?

Good news for those many readers who come here looking for "jesse eisenberg shirtless": the new movie, Adventureland, scheduled to open across the country on April 3, features Jesse Eisenberg not only shirtless, but in wet underpants. (Is that what one would call a "double feature"?)

It turns out that the search term, "jesse eisenberg shirtless," is the second-most popular hook that brings people to this blog, tied with "tyler whitney" and barely behind "douglas wilder." (Those rankings are based on the last 4,000 visits.)

A while has passed since I last looked at the weird search terms that lead people here. To be honest, there aren't as many odd or inscrutable or daffy search terms as there once were. It may be that people are learning better how to navigate the InterWebs, how to use the Google more effectively. It's sad, in a way, since the strange search terms have always been entertaining (if only to me).

Here are a few recent examples of weirdness that stand out:

abraham lincoln popstar

bob mcdonnell cannot remember oral sex

did ricky nelson have a large penis

gay themes in yiddish literature

"jockey shorts"(spanking) friend -kid -monkey

Representative "James P. Moran" Democrat of Virginia erectile dysfunction

there was a phrase said at the 2009 oscars what was it

what common household has been recently tainted with salmonella?

Here are a few with thematic links:

shirtless dan quayle
shirtless daniel bruhl
shirtless jason alexander
shirtless jesse palmer
shirtless pictures of jewish men
shirtless pictures of josh hutcherson

And, finally, here are a few focused on Charlottesville's own Trevor Moore, co-director of the new film, Miss March:

the trevor moore show
trevor moore cuddy
trevor moore movie
trevor moore scraps
trevor moore sexy
trevor moore shirtless
trevor moore, Brooklyn

What is the movie called with the boy who gets in a coma for four years and the girl he loved is a playboy playmate of the month for march

I hope the person with that last question found a satisfactory answer.

If not, come back soon. I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for.

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Who Is Nathan Hankins?

Longtime readers of this blog know that, by using SiteMeter, I am able to keep track of the search terms people use to find their way here. Some of those search terms have been odd and inscrutable.

Over the past week or so I have received repeated visits from somebody in Mountain View, California, someone who apparently works for Google. Although each visit lands on a different page (or blogpost), each one has the same search string:

nathan hankins sex pervert sheriff

Pursuing this search on Google does not shed much light. The first ten hits are completely unrelated and the individual words ("nathan," "hankins," "sex," "pervert," and "sheriff") do not appear near each other.

The first hit, for instance, leads to a a blogpost about the 2003 documentary film, directed by Andrew Jarecki, Capturing the Friedmans (which, by coincidence, I did see in a theatre when it was first released -- though I don't think I've ever written about it).

The second hit brings you to an incomprehensible alphabetical list of names.

The third hit goes to a page entitled "Walt Disney is EVIL!" (Need I say more?)

The fourth Google hit leads to my blog posts for the month of October 2006. To parse the mysterious search string, I find a reference to "nathan" in the context of Nathan Lane. The word "hankins" appears in a post about the Adrenaline Film Project at the 2006 Virginia Film Festival. "Sex" shows up in this headline: "New Jersey Court Rejects Same-Sex Marriage Rights" and in several other posts on a similar topic, the then-proposed (and since passed) Virginia Marriage Amendment (also known as the Marshall-Newman Amendment). "Pervert" appears only in a post about "the fallout from the Mark Foley scandal" and how people use the Internet to talk about sex. The word "sheriff" does not appear anywhere at all in that month's postings, which makes this whole situation even more confusing.

A Google search for the name "Nathan Hankins" (in quotation marks) turns up two Facebook profiles and an IMDB listing for someone with that name who has worked on the sound department of several films and TV shows. There are no hits for "Sheriff Nathan Hankins" (in quotation marks).

The mystery remains: Who is Nathan Hankins? Is he a sheriff or a sex pervert, neither or both? And what is his connection to Google or my blog?

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As Featured In ...

My two Christmas-related blogposts from yesterday (Christmas in Milwaukee - 1959 and Later, about my childhood holidays in the city that made beer famous, and A New Christmas Tradition in Arlington, which is a review of the new holiday musical revue at the American Century Theater) are now featured in the 2008 Carnival of Christmas, hosted by CatHouse Chat and posted earlier today.

My twinned posts get a place of honor (thanks, Kat!) in a section called "Christmas Traditions and Memories." (The first of several such sections, followed by "Christmas Meditations," "Christmas Recipes," "Christmas Songs, Pictures, Video, and Poetry," "Christmas Advent Series," "Christmas Humor," "Christmas Miscellany," and "Christmas Delays" -- quite a list, and quite readable, at that.) Take a look:

Our Carnival Daddy, Adam Graham, starts us off in this category with The Christmas Advantage. Don’t forget, in these uncertain times, “a lean Christmas doesn’t have to be a poor one.” Amen, Adam. Amen!

Jenn H. presents His Christmas Legacy over at Mixed Metaphor.net. It is a beautiful and touching tale about the simple faithfulness of the season, and how rich a simple, loving life can be.

Rick Sincere, one of my Virginia blog-brothers, has sent in two delightful posts – one about his memories of how his family celebrated Christmas in Milwaukee (and he’s got pictures AND a video – gosh, you were a cute kid, Rick!). I love seeing how other families have traditions springing out of their former cultures… His second entry is no less worthy, and speaks about new traditions being made, this time in Arlington, VA. I will definitely have to try and get up there next year for some good music and theater – maybe Rick can get me the tickets! LOL *wink*

Have you ever wondered whether wrapping presents is worth it? Well, according to a study that GrrlScientist dug up, it certainly is!

Suldog reposts Pointy the Poinsettia this year, and all Pointy’s fans will be delighted to know he’s doing very well!

TF Stern sent in his Gingerbread Cookie Tradition – which ought to go in the recipes section, except it’s not a recipe. It’s a story about sacrifice in lean times, and how the true value of any gift is how much of yourself you put into it.

Here is a very worthwhile read: Teaching Your Children About Giving on Christmas Day. Vickie of SidetrackedMoms is one of our prolific contributors this year, and I think this is my favorite entry from her. But then again, I also adore her post about Christmas traditions, so you ought to go over and decide for yourself!

Oh, I remember cutting our own Christmas tree – and this story about a family’s first experience with cutting their own tree is both funny and heartwarming… Thanks to Philaazophy for this contribution!

Laura Lee Donoho tells us a beautiful tale of how she learned to give the gift someone wanted. That’s a very difficult lesson to learn – we often want to give what we think someone ought to want – but Laura relates the story with a simple honesty that is truly touching. There’s a lot more, so you really really need to go read! Thank you, Laura; I’m so glad you found the Carnival this year! (And Jo was always my favorite, too!)

My dear blog-brother – and new grandapa! – GM Roper writes about Daddy Bah and his Gift of Love. The GMan writes so well, and the story of enduring and selfless love will really bless your heart!

How many of us sing the story of Frosty the Snowman? Well, Jody Wilcoxat Contemporary Conservative shows us how very like Jesus ol’ Frosty is… And does an exemplary job of reminding us of the meaning of Christmas!

Obi’s Sister sends in two entries of Christmas memories: the Best Santa Ever! and one about singing with Robert Shaw’s youth chorus one year *happy shivers* I love hearing big, well-trained choirs sing!

Finally for this section, Big Dog (yeppers, another blog-brother!) reminds us that a Simple Gift for Christmas is what it’s all about.

You can read the rest here.

Not only does Kat deserve thanks and kudos for putting together an extensive and entertaining Carnival of Christmas, she also is due some congratulations for having the carnival linked by Glenn Reynolds at InstaPundit. (Watch that holiday traffic go through the roof!)

Merry Christmas, everybody!

If It's Monday ...

On Monday and Tuesday evenings at around 10:30 p.m. (EDT), this blog begins to get a spike of visitors, nearly all searching for Hunter Parrish with one modifier or another. This corresponds to the weekly broadcast of a new episode of Weeds, the dark Showtime comedy that features Parrish as Silas Botwin, the elder son of Mary-Louise Parker's character, Nancy Botwin, a suburban drug dealer in southern California.

Parrish is so popular here, in fact, that searches for his name add up to at least 22.2 percent of all visits to this blog. (Technically, 22.2 percent of the last 4,000 visits -- a big chunk by any estimation.)

This is odd because a Google Trends analysis shows that the name Hunter Parrish -- as talented and studly as he might be -- barely registers:



This low level of interest is demonstrated in relative terms when one compares the popularity of searches for "Hunter Parrish" with a celebrity of similar age and attractiveness, actor William Moseley of the Narnia movies:



So it must be something about this blog, in particular, in which interest in Hunter Parrish converges with other topics that results in disproportionate popularity. (Among "cute guys," the next most popular searches that lead here are Josh Hutcherson and Tyler Whitney -- one a movie actor, the other a political activist. Aaron Carter used to be a rival but his popularity has dissipated.)

It seems that the number one question on the mind of those searching for Hunter Parrish is this: Is Hunter Parrish gay? The secondary concern seems to be a desire to see him either shirtless or nude.

I don't have any shirtless or nude pictures of Hunter Parrish, but I do know of a video with him whistling. It's a promotional clip from Showtime in which the network was challenging fans to whistle "Little Boxes," the song that served as the theme of Weeds during its first three seasons.

I have no doubt that seekers of Hunter Parrish will be pleased to learn of the next step in his career. He'll be starring in a Broadway musical:

The producers of Spring Awakening announce “Weeds” Star Hunter Parrish will join Broadway’s groundbreaking musical hit in the central role of Melchior, the brilliant young radical, on August 18. Featured in Vanity Fair’s cover feature “Hollywood’s New Wave-The Hottest Kids in Hollywood" spread (August issue), on newsstands July 9, Hunter can currently be seen as Silas, the rabble-rousing older son of Mary-Louise Parker on the highly acclaimed Showtime series WEEDS. The show’s 4th season premiered last month. Moviegoers can next see Parrish on the big screen in “17 Again” opposite Zac Efron and Matthew Perry. Other screen roles include “Freedom Writers” with Hilary Swank and Patrick Dempsey, and Barry Sonnefeld’s comedy “RV” playing the son of Jeff Daniels and Kristen Chenoweth.

I have always hoped that my passion for the theatre would eventually lead me to Broadway, says Parrish. "Spring Awakening is a truly one-of-a-kind show with its timeless story, commanding music and innovative imagery. I am elated to have the opportunity to become a part of it."

As it happens, the Jewish Daily Forward last week featured an article about Weeds that took issue with the portrayal of some of the Jewish characters in the show.

Written by Adam Wilson, whose other recent work appears in a book entitled Dirty Words: A Literary Encyclopedia of Sex, the article begins:

Who were the first Jewish potheads? The Old Testament seems filled with early precursors: Daniel, the interpreter of colorful dreams; Ezekiel, with his visions of flying chariots; perhaps even David, whose tunes of ethereal majesty were conceivably inspired by some seriously bitter herbs. Other scholars might go back to Genesis — Adam and Eve in that ripe, green pleasure-palace, hungry enough to eat forbidden apples. And then there’s slightly more recent history: Allen Ginsberg extolled the virtues of marijuana in pulsing, desperate verse, and Leonard Michaels wrote short stories about Jews on New York City’s Lower East Side getting stoned with sweet-smiling shiksas and then devouring leftover kugel sent over by their own mothers.

So perhaps it should come as no surprise that Showtime’s series “Weeds,” a quasi-sitcom about an attractive, widowed suburbanite who sells marijuana in order to support her family and her addiction to iced lattes, is filled with Jews, half-Jews and attractive women married — or once married — to Jews. Over its first three seasons, “Weeds,” more than any other show, has created Jewish characters that defy stereotype. Andy Botwin, the brother-in-law/partner-in-pot-dealing of our protagonist, Nancy, is a blue-eyed, fair-haired Jewish man with toned triceps and a fierce slacker wit. His only talent is his ability to create delightfully unkosher gourmet meals. Andy’s brother — Nancy’s deceased husband, Judah, who we see in dream sequences and in home movies — is played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the muscle-bound heartthrob who captured the loins of Katherine Heigl and plenty of American women in his role as Denny Duquette on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy.” Then there’s Dean Hodes, a Jewish lawyer more interested in getting stoned than in making money. As we learn in one episode, he is anatomically very well endowed.

Wilson expresses dismay at a recent turn in the plot and character presentation of Weeds:

These characters are exciting because they both play on and contradict our expectations about Jewish types. They are not old yiddlers munching gefilte fish, or nebbished-out neurotic nerds (like Larry David), or money-hungry misanthropes (like Larry David). Instead, the Jews on “Weeds” come from a contemporary Jewish America in which some Jews have blue eyes, some yeshiva employees are into S&M and some Semitic men have large penises.

All of which is why it is so disappointing that the show’s fourth season, which premiered in early June, has introduced a totally uninteresting Jewish character who lives up to every negative stereotype there is about Jews.

Wilson is especially perturbed by the character of Lenny, played by Albert Brooks, who is "a creep and a jerk":

What irks me about Lenny is not that he is a creep and a jerk — the world is filled with Jewish creeps and jerks, and it would be unfair to ask that all Jewish characters have redeeming qualities — but that his creepiness and his jerkiness seem directly tied to his Jewishness. (When Lenny plays Bubbe’s concentration camp numbers in the lottery, it’s hard not to see it as reiterating the stereotype that Jews exploit their tragedies for financial gain.)

Wilson will no doubt be happy to learn -- if he hasn't already -- that Lenny's character arc ended after the first four episodes of Weeds' new season. Albert Brooks has left the building.

But Hunter Parrish is still there. And for that I am grateful, since it brings new eyes here -- even if they don't find the shirtlessness they are looking for.

Update, July 31, 10:00 p.m.: The numbers keep rising. Searches for "Hunter Parrish" (including various spellings) amount to a minimum of 26.9 percent of visitors to this blog. And I don't even offer any actual nude or shirtless pictures of him!

Hunter Parrish, Hunted Celebrity

Hunter Parrish, who plays teen hunk "Silas" on the Showtime cable TV series, Weeds, is unusually popular these days. I have seen a rush of hits today (and in recent weeks) from people looking for him.

According to SiteMeter, these are the twelve most popular searches leading to my blog:

hunter parrish shirtless
circumcised celebrities
hunter parrish nude
hunter parrish gay
josh hutcherson shirtless
hunter parrish naked
tyler whitney
rick sincere
aaron carter drugs
us airways sucks
mark ellmore
"hunter parrish" shirtless

Republican congressional candidate Mark Ellmore must be pleased to find himself in eleventh place, directly behind "US Airways sucks" and close on the heels of "Aaron Carter drugs."

I wonder if anyone is having success in finding nude/naked/shirtless pictures of Hunter Parrish or his nearest rival on this list, Josh Hutcherson.

Update: Hunter Parrish continues to be unusually popular, especially on nights that Weeds is on TV.


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Prince Caspian and Peter Pevensie

Later tonight, the much anticipated sequel to the 2005 film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, will be debuting at midnight screenings across the country.

The new film, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, takes up where the last one left off (with a gap of about 1,300 years, as I understand it.)

I posted my first video to YouTube on October 26, 2006, and have now put 145 videos on that site, many of which have also ended up on the blog, as well.

Of those 145 videos, the two most popular -- by far -- have been very short, quite silent clips of William Moseley, who plays Peter Pevensie in the Narnia films. Moseley was a special guest at the Virginia Film Festival in October 2006. In one of the videos I took, he is participating in a panel discussion moderated by film critic David Edelstein. As of a few minutes ago, that video had 6,221 visitors on YouTube:

In the other video, young Mr. Moseley is signing autographs for delighted fans. That one has attracted 6,709 visitors and 13 text comments (mostly about his hair) on YouTube:

Just for comparison, let me note that, of my 145 posted videos, the third most popular is called "Scenes from a Debate Season," showing images of me and my fellow debaters at Marquette University High School during the 1975-76 academic year. It has had 1,400 visitors:

I figure, as teenage boys go, Peter Pevensie/William Moseley is about five times as popular as loquacious Catholic high school students from Milwaukee wearing leisure suits. What's curious is how much more popular he seems to be than Liev Schreiber, Bay Buchanan, my nephew Gavin, Robert Duvall, Sam Waterston, and Morgan Freeman. By the way, I'll be seeing Prince Caspian tonight and may have comments about it after the screening has ended.  (Chronicles of Narnia photo provided courtesy of the Virginia Film Festival.)

Strong Interest in Virginia Primary

Although today is Super Tuesday -- or Tsunami Tuesday, as some wags have called it, not to mention its alternate name, "Mardi Gras" for those more inclined toward beads and beer than ballots and bullhorns -- there seem to be plenty of voters who are looking past today's nationwide voting toward next week, when the so-called "Potomac Primary" takes place. February 12 will mark the first time that Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia all hold their presidential primaries on the same day.

I know this because of the deluge of visitors to this blog who are looking for information about Virginia's presidential primary. Of the last 4,000 recorded visitors, 1,218 (or 30.45 percent) entered through my post called "Virginia Presidential Primary FAQ," which is nothing more than a republication of a list of frequently asked questions compiled by Virginia's State Board of Elections. Yesterday's traffic ballooned with seekers of Virginia primary information.

That post is apparently easier to find than anything on the SBE's official web site. It shows up first in a Google search for "virginia presidential primary," "when is va presidential primary," and "virginia presidential primaries," second for "when is virginia presidential primary" and the similar "when is the virginia presidential primary," and only comes in behind the SBE's official site for the search term "virginia primary," when it places fifth after (in addition to the State Board of Elections) an article on Barack Obama in the D.C. Examiner, a chart about the delegate selection process on The Green Papers, and one of Dan Catalano's "Odd Dominion" columns in C-VILLE Weekly. (I can't quite fathom why this blog comes in third in an AOL search for "mike huckabee shirtless." This isn't an Abercrombie & Fitch store, after all.)

It is harder to determine if any of these information-hungry, potential primary voters are looking beyond the simple FAQ to learn about my opinions about the various candidates who will appear on the ballot -- Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rudy Giuliani (yes, he dropped out, but he's still on the Virginia GOP primary ballot), John McCain, Mitt Romney, or the aforementioned Obama, who is already running campaign commercials on local TV here in Charlottesville. (I have heard reports that McCain is also running broadcast ads, but I have not seen any of them myself. Nor have I seen the local Ron Paul Blimp above the skies of Charlottesville lately.)

I certainly invite any new visitors to linger for a while, and feel free to come back. I am sure that next Tuesday and Wednesday I will be posting news about the results of the Virginia presidential primary -- both the Democratic and Republican results -- along with highlights of the very long election day.

Remember, polls are open from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 12, in the same place that you vote in a regular election. The last day to vote in person by absentee ballot is Saturday, February 9, but check with your local office of voter registration and elections for hours that voting will take place.

As for my own Super Tuesday plans, I'll be seeing the stage version of High School Musical at the National Theatre in Washington. It doesn't have Zac Efron, Corbin Bleu, or Vanessa Hudgins, but it promises to be entertaining and energetic nonetheless ... if I can survive a throbbing sea of 12- and 13-year-old girls. (Talk about Tsunami Tuesday!) But then I must survive: there's an election next week.

Update: While I was drafting this post, someone left an anonymous comment on my previous Virginia Presidential Primary FAQ article, which may explain (in part) the drive in traffic in that direction:

Thank you for your posting of a straight forward primary election FAQ! This will be the first primary election I have ever voted in in Virginia. The straight up info was quite helpful. There is much info on the internet, but little of simple facts! To find the black and white you must surf through millions of blogs, and partisan opinions and forcasts!

And thank you, Anonymous, for your kind words. It's encouragement like that that makes bloggers blog.

Update, February 11: The number of visitors to "Virginia Presidential Primary FAQ" has increased to 1,802 of the last 4,000 visitors to this blog, or 45 percent, dwarfing the next most popular post, "Shirtless and Circumcised," which only has 129 recent visitors, or 3.2 percent.

That J.C. Penney Viral Email

The originator of a viral email about a 1977 J.C. Penney catalog was surprised at how traffic was driven to his site by what he thought was a rather quotidian item.

I was one of the recipients of one of those emails (mine came from a college classmate who, of course, graduated from high school in 1977, as I did), which apparently have been making the rounds since Johnny Virgil first posted his snarky comments about 1970s fashions on his blog, "15 Minute Lunch."

I'm disinclined toward reprinting someone else's material, but I encourage a visit to the original post. It really is funny -- especially if you were around in 1977. (The music was great but the clothes were, let's face it, atrocious.)

To give you a taste of what you'll find there, here is one photo scanned from that old catalog:


For those under 30 years of age, it may be hard to believe that people once wore colors and patterns like those. Yet that's among the mildest of the images. I hate to admit I once dressed in similar "fashion":



(And that's for a formal sitting. You don't want to see the candid snapshots. It's for good reason they did not end up in the National Gallery's current exhibition on "The Art of the American Snapshot" -- which I also highly recommend.)

In pre-Internet America -- even in the 1970s -- the J.C. Penney catalog was your Christmas shopping wish book. (Or was that the Sears catalog? My memory fades.) People dressed themselves and decorated their homes according to the examples they found in the J.C. Penney catalog.

Question for readers: Did anyone else receive the email about the 1977 J.C. Penney catalog? If so, when did you receive it? Did you pass it along to others? Did you trace its source, as I did?

I Should Be Glad I Work from Home

According to Friday's Washington Post, today (Saturday) has been designated "Cranky Co-Workers Day." Whether that's a holiday or not is another question, but the Post's Vicki Elmer describes it like this:

Cranky Co-Workers Day is designated as the time to recognize the role of the unhappiest in our midst.

One blogger suggests that you take that cranky cubicle dweller out for a drink -- a martini -- to try to turn around his or her mood, at least temporarily.

Another says that having the grump as a regular character in your personal blog may help put things in perspective, or at least give you a regular joke that people will find relevant.

We figure most workers have at least one cranky colleague, if not in the same row of cubicles, then in the same building. About three in 10 workers in an OfficeTeam survey say a colleague is rude or unprofessional, and among those, two-thirds say the bad behavior is frequent.

Telecommuting has more advantages than saving gas and reducing traffic congestion, doesn't it?

One more question, though: Why does Cranky Co-Workers Day fall on a Saturday? Don't most people still work M-F, with weekends off? Is this just a way to avoid another office party with stale cake and flat sodas ito celebrate yet another employment-related holiday?

That was more than one question. Here's the last one: What would Samuel Gompers say about this?

Someone Is Searching for Your Burritos

There is a (probably) apocryphal story, dating back four decades or more, about the Reader's Digest, whose editors had hired a consultant to determine which of the magazine's articles were most popular, and how they could use that information to increase sales, especially at newsstands and supermarket check-out lines.

After researching several years of editions and sales, the consultant came back with a report that the most popular items in Reader's Digest were biographical pieces on Abraham Lincoln, human interest stories about household pets, tales of Cold War espionage, articles about Nazis, and first-person accounts.

To maximize sales, the consultant suggested, the magazine's cover should place this headline prominently:

"I WAS A SPY FOR ABE LINCOLN'S NAZI DOG"

This came to mind when I saw a Reuters report this week on the most popular Google search terms around the world. The dispatch, datelined Berlin, begins:

Internet users in Egypt, India and Turkey are the world's most frequent searchers for Web sites using the keyword "sex" on Google search engines, according to statistics provided by Google Inc.

Germany, Mexico and Austria were world's top three searchers of the word "Hitler" while "Nazi" scored the most hits in Chile, Australia and the United Kingdom, data from 2004 to the present retrievable on the "Google Trends" Web site showed.

Chile also came in first place searching for the word "gay," followed by Mexico and Colombia.

Reuters lists the top ten search terms (and the countries where they reign highest) as follows:

"Jihad" - Morocco, Indonesia, Pakistan

"Terrorism" - Pakistan, Philippines, Australia

"Hangover" - Ireland, United Kingdom, United States

"Burrito" - United States, Argentina, Canada

"Iraq" - United States, Australia, Canada

"Taliban" - Pakistan, Australia, Canada

"Tom Cruise" - Canada, United States, Australia

"Britney Spears" - Mexico, Venezuela, Canada

"Homosexual" - Philippines, Chile, Venezuela

"Love" - Philippines, Australia, United States

Pulling up the rear on Google's list -- as reported by Reuters and other sources -- were these eight search terms:

"Botox" - Australia, United States, United Kingdom

"Viagra" - Italy, United Kingdom, Germany

"David Beckham" - Venezuela, United Kingdom, Mexico

"Kate Moss" - Ireland, United Kingdom, Sweden

"Dolly Buster" - Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia

"Car bomb" - Australia, United States, Canada

"Marijuana" - Canada, United States, Australia

"IAEA" - Austria, Pakistan, Iran

Except for "Dolly Buster" (which was unknown to me but seems to refer to a Czech-born porn star popular in Central Europe), all of these key words are fairly mundane. Only in the context of where they are popular do they raise eyebrows.

As frequent readers of this blog know, there are some odd search terms that bring people here. Some are odder than others, and some become less odd through repetition and the formation of patterns. For instance, from among the last 4,000 visitors, there were a cluster looking for presidential candidate Ron Paul in various configurations:

ron paul, tom coburn
ron paul, thoughts on global warming
ron paul university of virginia
ron paul tinky winky
ron paul thoughts on gay people
ron paul satanic hand gesture symbol
ron paul opposes dadt
ron paul on gay and lesbian issues
ron paul minority gay individual rights
ron paul judaism
ron paul don't ask don't tell catholic
ron paul and dadt
ron paul "reading list"

This should be expected, given Ron Paul's high profile on the Internet. (By the way, it is now confirmed that Dr. Paul will be a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC on Tuesday, October 30. Check your local listings.)

Then there is another cluster of search terms, all of them focused on the male torso:

shirtless teen idols
shirtless students photos
shirtless rudy guliani
shirtless robert redford
shirtless ricky nelson
shirtless prince william
shirtless prince harry
shirtless pictures of ricky nelson
shirtless pictures of jeremy sumpter
shirtless pictures of daniel radcliffe
shirtless pics of jesse palmer
shirtless missionary calendar
shirtless male postings
shirtless malcolm frankie
shirtless lou taylor pucci
shirtless josh hutcherson pics
shirtless josh hutcherson
shirtless hunter parrish
shirtless dave
shirtless college students
shirtless blogs

Most of these terms are too specific to show up on Google Trends. Some of these, however, might rate a Google Trends report:

penis size report
penis size percent
penis size debate
penis size blog
penis length in vergina
older women and penis size

At least "penis size" without qualifying terms shows up there. (It turns out Australians are most interested in penis size, followed by Americans, Canadians, Britons, and Indians.)

A lot of readers like to put their searches in the form of a question. Either they are used to playing Jeopardy or they cut their web teeth on Ask Jeeves. Here are some of those questions, just those beginning with the word "is" (and not, so far as I know, dependent on what the meaning of "is" is):

is virginia an open primary state
is this the right way to say fish fry's
is sweeney todd appropriate for preteens
is ron paul gay friendly?
is joshua bell circumcised?
is josh hutcherson circumcised?
is jeremy sumpter circumcised'
is hunter parrish gay?
is harry potter circumcised?
is frankie muniz circumcised
is former porn queen jennifer wells evading taxes?
is cuba theocratic
is bob fosse still alive
has bob fosse been found?
is aaron carter circumcised?

Then there are just the inscrutable search terms -- some of them in the form of a question, some not -- that just boggle the mind. What were they thinking? What were they really looking for?

how to say the american national anthem in pig latin
homoerotic spelling bees
hayek et olim meminisse juvabit
10 reasons why frankie muniz sucks
mike huckabee "respects" sexual deviants
family bestiality
yiddish translation for underpants
what is it with judy garland and gays?

And, finally, there is this recent search, from a reader in Kenya:

pictures of circumcision in progress in uganda

Check back in a few months. This collection will grow and grow and the time will come to revisit the topic.

By the way, thanks to Vodka Pundit for linking to my recent post on Sir Ian McKellen's appearance on the Craig Ferguson show. That link has more than doubled my traffic this week.



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Harry Potter: Economic Dynamo

With the impending release of both the fifth movie and seventh book in the Harry Potter series, interest in the boy-turned-adolescent wizard is at new heights.

Release Me has a post of a press release from the Nielsen companies about the economic impact of Harry Potter -- books, movies, DVDs, music CDs, toys, games, and miscellany -- since 1998. Much too long to repost in its entirety here (it has many nuggets of information and various statistics), it says in part:

Here is a unique look at the Harry Potter effect.

— Book sales (Nielsen BookScan) - Since 1998, when Nielsen began measuring book sales in the United Kingdom, the six Harry Potter books have sold more than 22.5 million copies in the UK alone. In the United States, the Harry Potter titles published after 2001 have sold more than 27.7 million copies.

— Box Office sales (Nielsen EDI) - Combined, the first four Harry Potter films have grossed more than $3.5 billion worldwide. The first film, “Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone,” is the fourth all-time highest grossing film worldwide.

— Advertising (Nielsen Monitor-Plus) - In the U.S., ad spend for all Harry Potter branded merchandise (including books, movies, DVDs and other promotional products) totals $269.1 million from 1998 to date. Outside of the U.S. from 2000 to date, $119.3 million was spent on total advertising for all Harry Potter branded merchandise in Canada, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland, and the U.K.

— DVD/Video sales (Nielsen VideoScan) -All three Harry Potter DVDs/Videos - Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets, and Prisoner of Azkaban - debuted at #1 and remained the #1 family film for the first 3 weeks of each release.

— Internet Traffic (Nielsen//NetRatings) - The Warner Bros. “Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix” Web site drew 446,762 unique visitors in May 2007.

— Internet Buzz (Nielsen BuzzMetrics) - On blogs, the final book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” is generating more “buzz” than the latest movie installment, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”

— Music sales (Nielsen SoundScan) - The four Harry Potter soundtracks combined have sold more than 1.1 million copies in the U.S. and almost 100,000 copies in Canada since the initial release back in October 2001. There have been a total of 180,000 downloads of individual songs that tied to the four Harry Potter soundtracks.

— TV ratings (Nielsen Media Research) - Since 2002, the Harry Potter movies have aired on U.S. television a total of 366 times.

— Moviegoer Profile (Nielsen Cinema) - A recent survey of moviegoers shows 51% of persons age 12+ are aware that the new book is coming out next month. Twenty-eight percent of persons 12+ in the U.S. have read one or more of the previous Harry Potter books, and 15% have read all of the Harry Potter books-to-date.

— Consumer (ACNielsen) - More than $11.8 million has been spent by U.S. consumers on Harry Potter-licensed trademark cookies, candy and gum products since June 2002.

That's a mouthful, isn't it?

Speaking of mouths full, I was intrigued by that last item, which is expanded later in Nielsen's news release:

ACNielsen data also shows that sales for Harry Potter-licensed cookies, candy and gum products peak the week a Harry Potter movie or book launches, showing almost $900,000 in sales for Harry Potter-licensed goods the week of the 11/5/02 movie premiere of “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” and $650,000 in sales the week of the 11/18/05 movie premiere of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”.

Candy products licensed from the Harry Potter series can be a little unconventional. Some favorites include: Cockroach Clusters, Jelly Slugs, Ice Mice, Chocolate Frogs, Fizzing Whizbees, and of course Bertie Bott’s Jelly Beans, including ear wax and dirt flavors.

Mmmmm! Ear wax and dirt! "Unconventional" is the least of it.

On a related topic, Doug Mataconis deflates some of the mythology surrounding the (non-economic) impact Harry Potter has had on youth reading habits. The hope was fun while it lasted.