See those two guys right here?  Yeah, them, Elmo and David Hasselhoff, well because of those two, I’m suddenly getting hundreds and hundred of clicks on my site every day.

Why, you ask?  I have absolutley no idea.

I searched around to see if perhaps there was big Elmo news at the moment.  Maybe he’s getting married.  Maybe he got divorced.  Maybe, (since he’s three) he’s finally finished with the dreadful process that is the NYC Private Pre-K Admissions process, and he’s announced where he’ll be fingerpainting next year.

Nope.

Seems people just like Elmo, and they Google him a lot.  And once, several months back, I wrote a post suggesting  John McCain dump Sarah Palin and run with Elmo instead.  (click here to read why) Here we are, three months later, and when people Google Elmo, they are somehow being diverted to my site.  Hopefully, none of them works for CTW, since I “borrowed”  that cute little picture of Elmo without asking. (Don’t worry CTW lawyers: I’m not making ANY money from this site. Trust me on that.)

David Haselhoff – same thing.  I also suggested him for McCain.  Seems lot of people are out there searching for him, too.  Go figure. And they’re ending up right here.

The Elmo fans and Hasselhoff fans who are finding my site?  Well, I’m pretty sure none of them is actually reading my blog…but they are clicking to it.

So it got me wondering: what is it about Elmo and The Hoff that is so much more compelling than aging, motherhood, and my twenty year quest to lose the same ten pounds?

As for Elmo, he’s cute, he’s furry, and he likes to sing.  I’m cute, if I don’t wax often enough I get furry, and I like to sing.  So it’s not that.  Maybe it’s that Elmo is all about other people, about finding things out and teaching.  And I’m all about navel gazing.  And it ain’t much of a navel, I can tell you that.  Maybe that’s why I gaze at it:  if I’m not going to, well, who will?

I’m hoping that at least some of the Elmo searchers who end up here will look around, maybe laugh a little, maybe come back when they’re not looking for the little red guy.  But if not – well, seeing those hits go up and up on the stats chart just makes me feel good.  It’s kinda like when you have a scale you KNOW is low, but it still makes you feel good to get on it.  Or when you know a company (like Old Navy) has vanity sizing, but it still feels good to zip up the size six.  Maybe it’s all a fantasy, but it’s my fantasy, and I’m sticking with it.

And the Hoff? Why oh why are so many people searching for him? Well, in his case, there’s just no accounting for taste.