What Querying Minds Want to Know in September

When the mood strikes, I like to check my logs to see what search terms brought people to my journal. What I've discovered is that if one writes about a wide variety of topics, then one will receive an even wider variety of queries. What I fear people have discovered is that if they ask the interwebs a question, they will be led far, far astray and end up here, which makes me feel awful.

In an effort to get them back on track, I thought I would try to respond to some of these queries and point them in a better direction. Like last time, I have kept the queries intact, but have changed the names and places to make this feel more like a question and answer session. Let's begin...

M. Hamilton from California queries, "update who started the lick fire".

Well, M. Hamilton, by the time it was fully contained, the Lick Fire had consumed 47,760 acres of land and more than half of Henry Coe State Park had burned. According to the Mercury News, a San Juan Bautista woman accidentally sparked the blaze when she attempted to burn a pile of paper plates in a barrel on her property north of the park.

K. Ridder of San Jose asks, "who was the main character in the show called early edition".

Gary Hobson. He was played by Kyle Chandler, who currently stars in a show called Friday Night Lights. Of course, I'll always fondly remember him as the unlucky bomb squad captain on Grey's Anatomy. If he had only gotten tomorrow's newspaper today, he could have called in sick.

Placido D. from Madrid wants to know, "did pavarotti lip sync in torino".

According to one of the guests on this radio show about the great opera singer's passing, Pavarotti only lip-synced once in 1992 during a pop concert in Modena, Italy. I hope that takes a load off your mind, Placido.

Bud S. from Wisconsin asks, "who won the baseball game on august 29 2007".

Bud, taking your question at face value, I would say you're going to have to be more specific. Reading between the lines, though, I would say you obviously meant San Francisco. On that day, the Giants beat the Rockies, 3-1, for one of their rare wins.

Teddy R. from New York queries, "hikers rating the difficulty of panorama trail in yosemite national park".

Teddy, I couldn't find a site that lets hikers rate the difficulty of trails, but for what it's worth, I'll give you my rating. It really depends on which direction you plan to hike the Panorama Trail. If you're starting from Happy Isles and hiking up to Glacier Point, then I would say it's a six on a difficulty scale of ten, based on the steep sections at the beginning (along the Mist Trail) and the end - the last mile or so is a climb. If you're hiking down to the valley from Glacier Point, then I would rate it a 4. There is some climbing involved after Illilouette Falls, but the rest of the trail is downhill.

JanSport389 types, "backpack fetish".

Jan, while I've heard of eyeglass fetishes and foot fetishes, I've never heard of a backpack fetish before. I've never really seen backpacks as accessories that add sex appeal, but maybe I'm just blind. It's surely conceivable that a backpack could make one person appear more attractive, mysterious, and even, dare I say, sophisticated to another person.

Hayden Panettiere? Eh.

Hayden Panettiere wearing an external frame backpack? Hawt!

(I can't wait to see what queries that response generates.)