the buzz log

Our picks from the day's hottest searches.

• MacLaren Strollers (+4,166%). Heart-breaking reports about finger amputations have resulted in the one-million baby carriage recall.
• Mutual Funds (+331%). People are re-evaluating financial investments, especially as some pools are diversifying into old-fashioned gold.
• Joseph Cao (+296%). The Louisiana representative and first Vietnamese-American in Congress was the solo Republican to vote for the health care reform package. Boom, instant media circus.
• California State Bar (+268%). The state bar president has been speaking out after the governor rejected a bill authorizing the bar to collect annual dues, calling the organization "overtly political, unresponsive...and inefficient."
• Carrie Prejean (+84%). The ex-Miss California has gone on the regrets circuit for a naughty tape. The discovery spurred her to settle her lawsuit against the Miss California USA pageant over contractual issues.

Filed under: Politics, Recalls, Finance, Beauty, Babies, Law

A collective exhale ushered the volatile 2008 out the door this week, although one baby who caused a political storm managed to quietly slip himself out before the end. Meanwhile, a long-time Oprah hoax and high-seas piracy stirred up the Buzz—and the searches—during this transition period.

Mom, Do We Have to Do a Combo Celebration?
Bristol Palin's boy emerged not as the grandson of the first female vice president, but as another December baby who will have to insist that his birthday celebrations remain separate from Christmas. Searches soared for the aptly named Baby Tripp, as well as for his momma (+851%) and all his youthful uncles and aunts. Meanwhile, proud grandma Sarah Palin—already busy defending her future son-in-law Levi Johnston's degree aspirations—used the happy event to warn against teen pregnancy on the governor's website. The message include Bristol calling her newborn "perfectly precious," although the timing itself hadn't been "ideal."

Oprah, Who Can You Believe?
The dominoes finally fell this week after Herman Rosenblat, who had been telling a sweet little story about meeting his wife at the fence of Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany for a dozen years, recanted his story. After a New Republic article raised many questions, publisher Berkley Books (already fooled twice by other authors) canceled his forthcoming memoir, and another publisher offered refunds for "Angel Girl," a children's book inspired by Rosenblat's tale. His hoax had charmed Oprah (twice), who declared his story the "single greatest love story...we've ever told on the air." Hollywood, which always changes the truth anyway, is going ahead with a film project based on the well-meant but discredited tale.

Captain, What Do We Do with the Fertilizer?
Apparently, oil and fertilizer don't mix. Pirates worked on New Year's Day and attacked two crafts. The high-seas bandits got hold of an Egyptian cargo ship with about 6,000 tons of fertilizer, but lost an Indian tanker with a full load of crude oil. The pirates haven't done too well lately: Water jets thwarted armed brigands last Friday, while a December defense, described in this BBC interview, involved cocktail bombs made out of beer bottles. Imagine what could've been done with the fertilizer.

Also buzzing...
  • "Catcher in the Rye" author J.D. Salinger turned 90 on New Year's Day, but remained in hiding for the grand event.
  • Soon-to-be Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dropped a Waterford crystal ball on Times Square, accompanied by her husband Bill and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to welcome in the new year.
  • "Deliverance," which made banjo music creepy for men, and "Terminator," which made Arnold Schwarzenegger creepy for everyone, counted among 25 films to be preserved forever at the National Film Registry. Cue "Dueling Banjos."

Filed under: Literature, Pirates, Hoaxes, Recaps, Babies, Week in Review, Wrap Up

July is supposed to be about barbecues, vacations, and leisure. Instead, high gas prices meant people were stuck at home (if they weren't foreclosed, that is), focusing on money savings, dark knights, and celebrity babies. Here are a few items that blew through Search this month.

Tossing Oil and Money into the Wind
So for an 80-year-old guy, oilman T. Boone Pickens's windy talk about energy resources moved quickly (+67,360%) up the Search charts. His Pickens Plan aims to wean America off foreign oil, and suckle on domestic crude and wind instead.

Change may or may not be in the air, but energy costs and the overall economy plagued July searches. We logged spikes on everything from "energy savings" and "how high will gas prices climb" to "fdic insurance" and "credit card debt consolidation." Will Pickens be a dark knight or the joker? Stay tuned.

Baby Boom
History will mark these moments: tea-party independence, men on the moon, and the twins of actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. The paparazzi-fueled saga dragged out the gestation period to soap opera lengths, but Jolie finally delivered, literally, fraternal twins (as per the latest celebrity trend).

The double coming resulted in a Jolie family reunion and a huge charity benefit, which rumors so far point to People magazine as the main $10-$15 mil contributor. While the Jolie-Pitt offspring overshadowed newborns from Nicole Kidman/Keith Urban and Matthew McConaughey/Camila Alves, searches went on overload for baby photos of Thomas "Pregnant Man" Beatie's little girl. Price to publish photos of a medical miracle? A rumored steal of $300K.

Other searches that buzzed in July...

• Dame Diana Rigg (+17,157%), who immortalized Mrs. Peel in the 1960s British camp spy series, turned 70 this month.
• Space Agency NASA (+25%) marked its mid-century of existence. Just in time, Dr. Edgar Mitchell—man number six on the moon—said aliens indeed existed.
• Cancer claimed two well-known personalities this month: Carnegie-Mellon professor Randy Pausch's passing once again fueled searches for his lecture (see chart). Former journalist and White House press secretary Tony Snow lost to a second bout of colon cancer.
• As expected, "dark knight" cast its bat shadow, with Heath Ledger getting the last laugh as the Joker... and as "keith ledger," perhaps the most popular misspelling of the month.

Fastest Movers in July Searches

1. Thomas Beatie Baby Photos (+infinity). See above.
2. T. Boone Pickens (+67,360%). See above.
3. Daisy Lowe (35,881%). Supermodel dating producer Mark Ronson, brother to DJ Samantha Ronson who's linked to Lindsay Lohan. Get all that?
4. Abigail Adams. Wife of 2nd U.S. president John Adams, mom to number 6 John Quincy Adams, and subject of an HBO miniseries.
5. Riyo Mori (+22,139%). The outgoing Miss Universe gave up her crown to Miss Venezuela.
6. American Teen (+21,799%). The Sundance Festival documentary favorite keeps it real, and opens in some theaters this Friday.
7. William Sisters (+21,552%). Venus finally beat younger Serena in a Wimbledon match-up, and they teamed up to win doubles.
8. James Haven (+19,986%). See above.
9. Dara Torres Maxim. (19,923%). Aiming for Olympics number five, the gold medalist's element is water, but for fans it's glossy paper.
10. Randy Pausch, the Last Lecture Video (+19,748%). See above.

Filed under: NASA, Celebrities, Monthly Wrapup, Recaps, Gas Prices, Space, Money, Babies, Wimbledon, Pageants, Wrap Up