Top Lycos Searches
Happy Halloween!
There is only a week until Halloween and the holiday is making its presence known on this week's Lycos 50 at #5. Halloween is one of my favorite days of the year. I do love costumes, and quite honestly, would wear a costume to work every day if people wouldn't find it overly strange. As the philosophy of the cinematic masterpiece, "Mean Girls," goes, Halloween is really the only day when girls have carte blanche to wear completely scandalous outfits without being judged by other girls. In addition to the hilarity of watching adults roam the streets in absurd get-ups, Halloween is also the one day where it is considered not only okay, but normal, to consume one's body weight in sugar. Is there anything more delicious than candy corn? I think not. (Of course, there is the slight problem of excess sugar causing a girl to look bloated in her scandalous outfit, but even Halloween cannot be perfect.)
As children of all ages prepare for October 31, pumpkin carving sees a jump in search activity, appearing at #27 on this week's top 50. This weekend, the impassioned individuals of Boston, Massachusetts displayed 30,128 jack-o-lanterns on Boston Common, breaking the record for most lit jack-o-lanterns in one place set by the people of Keene, New Hampshire in 2003. I've never been so proud to be a Bostonian. (Though I do have the nagging feeling that one of those jack-o-lanterns will probably end up smashed on my doorstep, causing me to fall disastrously and break several bones.)
And with search activity for Halloween jumping five percent this week, if web searches are any indication, trick-or-treaters will want plenty of Dots candy. Dots are the most-searched candy with web users, generating 275 percent more search activity than the second most-searched treat, Snickers.
The top five most-searched candy treats this Halloween season are:
Oh, Paris.
Paris Hilton has been a top 10 mainstay for a while now, and this week, hits #6. Can you remember that happier, more innocent time when we were not inundated with Paris constantly? I can barely keep up with whom she is currently not feuding. We are all well aware that Paris and Nicole have patched up their differences, but it now appears that Paris is BFF with Lindsay Lohan again, as well. Apparently, the two were palling around at Michelle Trachtenberg's party in Vegas. (The fact that Buffy's little sister is now old enough to throw parties attended by Paris Hilton really makes me contemplate my mortality.) With all of these Hollywood starlets making peace all of a sudden, it really gives one hope about the situation in the Middle East. Perhaps Paris missed her calling as an ambassador or diplomat.
Baseball rises to #11, as interest in the World Series no one really saw coming grows. The series is tied 1-1 between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Detroit Tigers. Both teams show increased search activity, but web users favor the Tigers. Searches for the Detroit Tigers are 180% more popular than searches for the St. Louis Cardinals. NFL Football follows baseball at #12. Christmas also holds steady at #19, with only a slight drop from last week. One of the most popular gifts will probably be a throwback from 10 years ago; on September 19, Mattel unveiled TMX Elmo, a decade after Tickle Me Elmo sent kids and their eager-to-please parents into a frenzy. Stay tuned, as the Lycos 50 will soon announce the most searches toys and video games this holiday season.
Movers & Shakers
Country singer Sara Evans, who increases 222%, was a competitor on the third season of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." On October 12, she left the series for "personal reasons."" Reportedly, these reasons include the nasty divorce she is undergoing with her husband, Craig Schelske. Allegations have surfaced involving an affair between her husband and her nanny. Another celebrity in the midst of a divorce, Heather Mills, gains a whopping 453%. Mills appeared on our Movers & Shakers list last week, and continues to see a growth in search activity. Searches for Mills are 2,853% more popular than searches for Paul McCartney. The latest news in Heather's life is that she is reportedly suing two British newspapers for printing false rumors about her divorce from Sir Paul. The divorce has led to a firestorm of media and has become one of the messiest celebrity divorces in recent years, with Mills even asserting that she was abused.