Sitemeter and the Perils of Blogging

Zeno of Halfway There wrote a post about his pseudonym, including two philosophers named Zeno, and other Zenos, including Nikki Zeno (with photo). In another post, he wrote an excellent piece about Dick Cheney and his FOX interviewer, Brit Hume. Check out his post on which of the two caused the number of visitors to his site to spike:

I was pretty pleased with myself. Dick Cheney had chosen to break his silence on the notorious hunting accident in Texas by speaking to Brit Hume on Fox News. It occurred to me that Hume was no stranger to speaking fluff to power. I had the evidence in my archives. (“Archives”: A fancy word for a cluttered home.) Brit's work as an apologist was in the pages of old computer club magazines from the 1980s that I had saved for no discernable good reason. I dug out the publications, found the articles, and drafted a blog post containing some juicy quotes from Hume himself. I uploaded my article and waited confidently for surfers of the blogosphere to stampede to my virtual door.

I suppose it's a little ridiculous that all one has to do to receive a spike in visitors is to incorporate words such as American Idol, Da Vinci Code, Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, karaoke, George Clooney, memes, new video games, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hawaii, Tahiti, lottery, alternative medicine, origami, Oscars or Jon Stewart, and your personal best just might be reached that day. Of course, no one will stay long if one doesn't actually say anything about those topics.

Ah, if just one reader will stay for ten minutes to read those trying to save our democracy or talk about foreign policy or, in Zeno's case, talking about Brit Hume or teaching young kids math.

What a world!