You can blame today’s post on Arlo Guthrie. See, I’d planned to write about my foundation planting for this month’s Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop, and I’d intended to think about that while I was out working in the garden this morning. But somehow, the song “Alice’s Restaurant” popped into my head and wouldn’t leave. Usually, the song runs about 18 minutes, so if I’d been listening to the entire thing, it wouldn’t have been so terrible. But after hearing nothing but an endless repetition of “You can get anything you want at Alice’s restaurant…” for four hours, I’ve just about lost my ability to create coherent sentences. I guess I should consider myself lucky it wasn’t his Motorcycle Song (“I don’t want a pickle/Just want to ride on my motorsickle…).
So, for something not at all serious: As I was searching blog archives while filling out the nominations form for the Mouse & Trowel awards, I was reminded of some terrific posts about eccentric blog search phrases: ‘In Dream Book What Is Smelling Onion’ and Other Searches to Get Here at May Dreams Gardens and People Google the Strangest Things and More Googling Fun at Bumblebee. Since reading them, I’ve made a point of regularly checking our GGW SmarterStats report to see what sort of searches bring people here, and I’ve been keeping a running list of some of the oddest phrases.
As you can imagine, having the words “gone wild” in our blog’s name draws in quite a few strange, and sometimes extremely creepy, searches. One of the oddest of the bunch was “grannys gone wild”, which apparently led the searcher to A Pocketful of Melon, a post I’d written about Queen Anne’s pocket melon (also known as plum granny). “Mom gone weld” was another weird one. I say, good for Mom!
Apparently milkmaids are of extreme interest as well. Phrases such as “what do milkmaids do?”, “what do milk maids mean in politics”, and “blogs for milkmaids” all lead to Saxon’s post on The Meaning of Milkmaids.
Sometimes, the phrases are intriguing enough to make me want to run them through Google myself. “What does sitting in a red chair mean?” leads to Steve’s post Sitting Pretty, showing his photo of a stunning red-painted chair in his garden. I still don’t know what it means, though, or even if it must have a meaning other than being beautiful.
And along that line, what I think has to be one of the most curious phrases in our all-time list: “what do paperwhites contribute to society?” As far as I know, paperwhites, just like the lilies of the field, “toil not, neither do they spin.” I wonder what the searcher really wanted to know, and if they ever found the answer.
Or how about this one: “how to rake leaves under the snow”? That’s one topic that Fran didn’t cover in her post Leaves (which includes her photo at right), but I wish she had, because that sounds like a really neat trick!
And to finish, a sampling of some other curious search phrases:
plants are our good friends
I don’t like gardening
the most unpopular flower in the world
does the Easter bunny live on Mr. McGregor’s farm?
don’t want to look after neighbor’s rabbit
cat gone wild
expanding animal
gardens exist
…and my favorite: subversive gardening.
Have any of you noticed some strange search phrases showing up for your blog? We’d love to hear yours!
Latest posts by Nancy J. Ondra (see all)
- What’s in a Name? Whence They Came - December 17, 2010
- What’s in a Name? Uses, Flavor, and Fragrance - December 2, 2010
- What’s in a Name? Form and Function - November 19, 2010
