Since I get search query hits nearly every day for "tickling," I thought my journal must be one of the top tickling sites on the Web. So it was a surprise to find that on Google I'm listed no higher than number 367 (although I'm sure I'll go up after this entry, and if you came here looking for something kinky, I halfway apologize). I'm behind such sites (and I'm not endorsing — or linking to — any of these) as tickling.com, tickling.net, The Tickling Forum, The Art of Tickling, The Ring of Tickling, and 7 Easy Steps for Tickling Your Bathroom (all on the first search result page).

Later on, there's an ABC News story on why self-tickling is impossible. We have Erotic Tickling, Tickling the Ivories, Tickling Panties, Tickling Torture (lots of that), and even a Yahoo category for tickling (it's in the Business and Economy section). I found everything from scientific treatises on tickling to tickling message boards. Tickling fiction. Tickling remedies. CafePress has a line of tickling products.

Seriously, I had to go to number 367 on the list before I found a link to this entry of mine. And yet, I get hits almost every day! How can people go through the first 366 listed sites (and there's some really nasty stuff there, trust me) and still click on something so obviously tame? I don't get it.

On the other hand, my index page is listed first under bunt. After that you get genealogical sites for families with that name, plus Germany's best Internet access, and several sites discussing karnal bunt, a fungal disease of wheat. You can view the most enormous web button on the Net, or listen to an Aussie rock band "with sixties beats and a blues punk heart."

Other frequent search queries that land people here include: Don't call me Shirley (#3 on Google), Jaan Pehechaan Ho (#36), plausible deniability and Jennifer Lopez at the Grammys (also "tickling Jennifer Lopez"). I've also been hit on enema procedure graphic (#9), comedian Ronnie Schell (#8, sorry Ronnie), Magic Lantern Theater Isla Vista (#4), and troubles melt (#1!). Any actor I've mentioned from local theater productions has found my reference, as has anyone looking for "Barry Bonds' 511th home run" (#12).

If I thought any of this meant anything, I'd draw some revealing conclusions.

World Series notes: This just doesn't happen. You don't get to have two miracles in a row. When you're down by two runs with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, you almost always lose. But the Yankees refused to lose, because that would have put them in the position of going back to Arizona and needing to beat two of the best pitchers in baseball, Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, back to back.