Lies, damned lies, and statistics. But I do love them so!
I was fascinated to learn from my stats provider, BlogLog, about the most popular stories published here at my humble journal.
My hottest links are skewed toward the end of the year, because my blog readership has tripled this fall.
Why? I'm a poster girl for the natural curve of blogging— if you keep at it (two years being a turning point) and you post daily, the worm turns.
1. That's Right, You're Not From Texas, Sodomy Loves You Anyway
What's not to like? Molly Ivins in prime form, dildo details you never dreamed of, and the Texas State Legislature in a rare form that would take Mark Twain's breath away.
I thought I was being a sentimental, self-indulgent diaper-baby to post all my nostalgic cartoon favorites, but apparently a lot of us are sucking on the same tit! This link was also wildly promoted by the new browsing tool, Stumbleupon, which I had never heard of 'til I wrote this!
3. Penthouse Letters Are Real, Grand Theft Auto is Not, and St. Louis, I Do Mind Dying
This is one of the best-written stories I ever posted, and I'd like to think it was my skill and poetry that shot it to #3. However, it's more likely a hit because I interviewed the woman, Lavada Nahan, who worked for Penthouse for more than a decade and was shut in a room with one million unopened sex letters and told to spin them into gold!
4. The Best Spaghetti You Ever Had
This just goes to prove that sex bloggers and their readers are the biggest food sluts you ever met.
5. Sneak Preview of Best American Erotica 2007: The Lolita Backlash
Well, wait 'til you read the whole thing! I look forward to interviewing many of the authors in the coming months.
6. Four Things You May Not Know About Me
Okay, here's a fifth thing: When my alarm clock goes off in the morning, this is what I hear: Carolan's Welcome. I got this album from the musician himself, James Kline, busking in front of the San Francisco Farmer's Market, and my lover recognized him from playing on the streets of Sienna!— years earlier! I'd love to see him again and kiss his feet.
7. Esther Perel Musses the Marriage Bed
This is one of the best interviews I've ever done for In Bed, thanks to Esther's tour de force extemporaneous analysis of why married people stop fucking and then don't understand why. The whole interview is posted for you to listen to.
8. Egg Sex
My story of my sex life— physical, emotional, political— during pregnancy and childbirth is one of the most popular stories I ever published, long before blogging. I'm eggstatic it found a new audience here.
The square business press portrayed the first woman's blogger conference as either a bunch of hard-bitch geeks, or "really nice pretty girls that you don't have to be scared to talk to!" Yawn. I found it to be the coolest pool party and hands-on change-the-world party I'd been to in a long time. And of course I had to give a sex survey...
10. The League of Amazing Latkes
I want some more right NOW.
My potato pancake recipe was followed in popularity by a blistering polemic by Dan Savage, my G-Spot Fraud Detection Squad, and the index of all my posts on photography.
I happen to think my photographic art babble is right up there with Susan "Dyke" Sontag on Hash, but to my dismay, I think my link gets mega-hits because there's some nekkid people in the illustrations. It's a huge hit in the United Arab Emigrates, surpassed only by Kansas.
Thanks again to Steve Ho for the stats that made my head spin. Tomorrow, I'll post the top ten places you all came from! Glorious illustration of Mark Twain by Ralph Steadman.