Hey, I made it to page 1 of Google returns...

... on the word "rectumtude." I especially like that I've beaten out "Unfortunate Baby Names," which seems serendipitous/fortuitous on a day when the whole world is waiting to hear what the Duke and Duchess are going to name the new princess. Do you think Serendipity is a good baby name? If you ever have twins, a girl and a boy, feel free to use the names I just thought of: Serendippity and Fortuitus. I tweaked the spelling to get an ancient Roman look for the boy and, for the girl, some silly cuteness. You can call her Dippy, as in "Epistle to Dippy":

Google does fashion reporting.

The NYT reports:

In its inaugural report, Google distinguishes between �sustained growth� trends, like tulle skirts and jogger pants; flash-in-the-pan obsessions like emoji shirts and kale sweatshirts; and �seasonal growth� trends, or styles that have come back stronger every spring, like white jumpsuits. It makes similar distinctions among sustained declines (peplum dresses), seasonal ones (skinny jeans) and fads that are probably over and done (scarf vests).

Lisa Green, who heads Google�s fashion and luxury team, said the company had begun working with major retailers, including Calvin Klein, to help them incorporate real-time Google search data into fashion planning and forecasting. �Fast fashion� companies, for example, can take a trend identified by Google and run with it, Ms. Green said....

ADDED: It's so funny to think of weird things becoming fashion trends after Google mistakes searching as an indication that people want to wear something when, in fact, they're curious about it for some other reason. I mean, I'm curious about scarf vests now, just because I don't know what they are, so I'd have to look it up. And if Google's presentation causes people to adopt something that wasn't a real fashion trend, then manufacturers will want to figure out strategies to cause certain words to get searched. Or maybe they'll just notice words that are picking up in the world of Google searching and start making whatever it is � tulle skirts or some such thing. (Aren't people Googling "tulle skirts" just because little girls want them? Maybe not.)

"Gay Events That I, Marco Rubio, Would Go To."

A comic piece at The New Yorker � #1 on The New Yorker's "most popular" list � that riffs on a WaPo item that reads:

Presidential candidate and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in an interview with Univision�s Jorge Ramos on Wednesday that he would attend a gay wedding of someone he was close to � while qualifying that he wouldn�t condone the union itself.

It's a good comic idea, which is why I and, I assume, many others clicked on it, which is all that is needed to be "popular" for the purposes of climbing an internet "most popular" chart. The execution of the comic idea is another matter. But that's subjective, and it's going to depend on whether you feel empathy for politicians who need to adopt a namby-pamby pose on gay marriage.

I stopped to contemplate the quality of my own humor. Should I say "a namby-pamby pose"? To help decide, I did a Google image search on the phrase "a namby-pamby pose." #1:



My question is answered. The god Serendipity has spoken.

UPDATE: Speaking of gods speaking, no sooner do I publish this post than my doorbell rings. Though I don't normally answer the doorbell, I go to the door. It's 2 men in suits and a little boy. They've got copies of The Watchtower. Here's how I reacted:



Ah! It's such a perfect day today! I believe in The Universe!