the buzz log

Not all was about financial lows and jittery panic this week. Good news slipped in among the black yawning chasm of bad news, as celebrities made pitches for motherhood, college football fans exulted in pigskin hotspots, and lawmakers got to yell at Wall Street executives. Here now is the week in Buzz.

The Economy Just Needs a Mud Bath
Timing is everything. The Buzz Log reported an incensed surge for "aig spa" searches, but no, not for recommendations. AIG, which may have to dip back in taxpayer pockets after last month's $85 billion bailout, was handed a clue during this week's Senate hearing, when lawmakers chewed out execs for a $440,000 spa trip to reward "top-performing" life insurance agents. The Wall Street firm cancelled another junket and the plan to pay for pricy ads to apologize. Now free: $400/night rooms available at the Ritz Carleton in California's Half Moon Bay. Still wanted: Apology.

Hot Magazine Mamas
Motherhood isn't just sexy, it's high fashion. Halle Berry, the Oscar winner who also tortured audiences as Catwoman, now wears the Esquire crown of Sexiest Woman Alive. Berry's acceptance essay pondered hip dysplasia, the ripe smell of her man's (Gabriel Aubry) car, and how she feels sexier after motherhood. Meanwhile, 2004 honoree Angelina Jolie has received props from advocates like La Leche League International for being W magazine's breastfeeding cover woman for November. No essay, but she talks up pregnancy and her beau Brad Pitt. 

Something to Cheer About
At least there's always college football. USA Today lowered its head and ran with its list of "10 great places to stand and cheer college football." Among the stadiums, Neyland got kudos for passion, Husky for its views, and Camp Randall for its deep-fried cheddar balls.

Also buzzing this week ...
 • A 92-year-old tradition ended in a sad pun when Mother's Cookies baked its last Circus Animal cookies. Even NPR couldn't resist the crumbling metaphor, when the private equity firms that bought the company three years ago now declared it bankrupt.
 • Markets may fall, but the two wheels keep turning: The Economist reports pumped-up bike sales worldwide, thanks to gas prices and the battle of the bulge.
 • Forget staycation. People hankering to get away from the madding crowd found budget travel sites devoted to the cause of relaxation.

Filed under: Football, Finance, Business, Celebrities, Transportation, Pregnancy, Breastfeeding, Week in Review, Cookies, Wrap Up

The world's greatest athletes may have tussled and triumphed in Beijing this week, but here at the Buzz, far more mysterious creatures held sway. A vampire dog galloped past, the body of a seven-foot hairy legend surfaced in a north Georgia woods, and an invisibility cloak cast its spell over readers. Read on for more of the week's buzziest tales...

A Chupa- what?
Early in the week, video footage emerged of a supposed Chupacabra, the mythological beast said to feast on the blood of farm animals and haunt parts of the U.S. and Latin America. Captured on tape by a Texas sheriff's deputy, the four-legged creature lopes ahead of the police vehicle, at one point turning its face to flash a long, bulbous snout.

Real? Who knows? Some investigators say the animal is possibly a coyote-fox mix; a biologist says it's a pit bull. Regardless, searches for "chupacabra texas" rose 13,424% over the past week, while the deputy's video clip ascended to the #1 spot in the week's top buzzing stories.

A Big- who?
Within days of the Chupacabra video, news broke that two men in northern Georgia had found the corpse of a Bigfoot—or so they claimed. Though the press conference to present the "evidence" wouldn't happen until the end of the week, the buzz around the revelation quickly reached a fevered pitch.

In just one day, more than 100 distinct searches related to the hairy monster besieged the Search box. In Buzz, a CNET article on the fervor topped the week's most popular science stories. Regrettably, the Friday press event left many questions unanswered.

An invisibility- huh?
Not to be outdone by vampire dogs or gigantic bipeds, researchers at UC Berkeley announced this week that they had crafted an artificial fabric that "can bend light around 3D objects." As NPR explains: "If they're able to expand the work to a wider range of wavelengths, the material could provide an unprecedented level of control over the way light moves, perhaps even making a "cloak of invisibility" possible."

The "perhaps" in that statement didn't stop anybody. Articles on the possibilities of superhero attire glided up the Buzz charts. In Search, lookups for "invisibility cloak" leapt, followed closely by the even more optimistic "invisibility cloaks." Why seek just one when you could have multiple copies?

Filed under: Cryptozoology, Week in Review

A future Hall of Famer leaves Boston for L.A. A one-time dream home slips into foreclosure. And an A-list star objects to airbrushing. These stories, and others, topped the charts in Buzz this week…

Will Manny still be Manny out West?
Superstar slugger Manny Ramirez and his team, the Boston Red Sox, have butted heads for years. Now, that contentious relationship has come to an end. In "a stunning three-team trade," the Massachusetts club sent the outfielder to the L.A. Dodgers this week. Whether Boston fans are relieved or devastated, we can't say. But the swap boosted Manny into the top sports news and searches for the past seven days.

An "Extreme Makeover" home defaults
In 2005, ABC's reality hit "Extreme Makeover" recruited more than 1,800 volunteers to help create a "sparkling, four-bedroom mini-mansion" for the Harper family in Georgia. It's not so sparkling anymore. The over-sized home now faces foreclosure. After the mortgage woes went public, buzz for "abc extreme makeover" rose 839%, while interest in "extreme makeover harper family" and "extreme makeover harper family house" surged off the charts.

Keira Knightley just says no
Airbrushing may be the standard operating procedure for Hollywood types, but British beauty Keira Knightley isn't having any of it. The luscious actress has refused to allow her image to be digitally altered in promotional pieces for her upcoming flick, "The Duchess." Buzz readers greeted the news with enthusiasm, making a TrendHunter post on the star's protest the week's top spiking entertainment story.

Also moving and shaking in Buzz this week...

• The earthquake that struck Southern California on Tuesday may have been moderate on the Richter scale, but it was epic in Buzz. It set off such giant search spikes as "california earthquake" (+8,624%) and "u.s. geological survey" (+2,599%) and rose to the top of the week's U.S. news.

• The sixth "Harry Potter" film doesn't hit theaters until November 21, but it's already stirring enthusiasm on the Web. The release of the trailer, and its first glimpse of Ralph Fiennes' 11-year-old nephew Hero Fiennes-Tiffin as a young Voldemort, sent fans scurrying to Buzz for more.

Filed under: Week in Review