Dutch Royals In Wiki Scandal

When it was announced last week that WikiScanner, a software program that tracks updates to Wikipedia via IP addresses, had gone online I remembered wondering who exactly it might catch. Actually, for the sake of full disclosure, I was actually wondering whether or not I would get a blog post out of it. My own earliest list of potential culprits included the White House, Microsoft, and Donald Trump.

So while politicians and corporate stooges alike actually have been called out on their rewriting of certain pages, I would have never dreamt that a royal would fall into this trap. (Royalty, in case you hadn't already guessed, is my catnip.)

That's exactly what happened, though; Prince Johan Friso of Holland - second son of Queen Beatrix - and his wife Princess Mabel were busted doing a little tidying up of her past recently. In their own defense the Prince did say he was only trying to correct the public's erroneous impression of his wife: namely that she was once the gunmoll of a druglord, then lied to the Prime Minister about it so she could be a Princess.

To be fair, rather than blaming it on a press secretary, they did 'fess up to doing it themselves. Which has me thinking they must still be in contact with the Princess' ex-boyfriend*, because what were they smoking anyway? Royalty are trained to avoid scandal from birth; what, they can't send a secretary to an Internet cafe to make whatever edits they need? No, they do it themselves on a computer inside the Palace.

Still, at least they owned up when caught. Turns out both chivalry and responsibility (both presumed dead for years) are alive and kicking.

[S O U R C E]

*^{: They're not. He died in 1991. I just liked the joke so I left it in.}
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The Face Behind The Voice: Dee Bradley Baker

When asked to name the strangest cartoon character he's ever played, no doubt that of an East German skiier whose brain has been implanted into the body of a goldfish by the FBI so as to rig the 1980 Winter Olympics must rate pretty close to the top of the list. I know it would for me.

Happy Birthday Dee Bradley Baker, the voice of (among many many others) Klaus, on American Dad.
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StatWatch, Week 3: The Mimi Panzirer Effect

No single story has given me as many hits as that of Mimi Panzirer. Whether she's is a living angel or twice as bad as her babygramma matters not to me; I will be forever grateful to her for the traffic she brought to my site.

The former daughter-in-law of the late Leona Helmsley caused a nearly three-fold jump in hits on Wednesday and a nearly two-fold jump on Thursday, making Wednesday the busiest day on record for the Pop Culture Institute: 144 visits and 173 page views on that day alone. Thursday was none too shabby either: 90 visits and 100 page views when my average is still only 53 and 66.

Of course, hits are nice mainly because each one represents a potential reader, and it's the readers who matter most to me. Thanks to Mrs. Panzirer I even got a few of those. Discounting those regulars (whom I still love!), here is a select list of new readers:

Silver Spring, Maryland - :16
Goose Bay, Labrador - :21
Huntersville, North Carolina - 1:19
NYC - 2:25
San Francisco, California - 3:08
NYC - 4:01
Houston, Texas - 4:32
Portland, Maine - 5:46
Ottawa, Ontario - 8:54
Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania - 10:32
Kansas City, Missouri - 12:37
Calgary, Alberta - 13:57
Westbrook, Queensland - 18:55
Unknown US - 21:41
Ayer, Massachusetts - 21:46

Each one of these people came looking for Mimi Panzirer and yet all of them stayed because... Well, it's not my place to wonder why, and in lieu of comments, I may never know. Due entirely to the Mimi Panzirer Effect, though, I dohave a little better idea how to find, respond to, and follow trends in Google.
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Can It, Senator Hot Pants

I'm a ho...Er, I mean Idaho Senator Larry Craig says he's not gay. He claims that all that shuffling and note passing he was doing in the men's can was innocent and misinterpreted. Next he's going to say he invited only the guy to caucus with him, and was misunderstood due to lousy acoustics.

I have news for Senator Craig. I'm actually gay and nothing I've ever done in the men's can has ever been misconstrued by anybody. Where there's smoke, there's fire, and in this case, it's your pants. They are definitely on fire, Senator Hot Pants.

When will Republicans ever learn that GAY does not mean "wears a tight shirt and lisps"; GAY means "gimme more of the same, genital-wise, please". Frankly, I'm getting tired of repeating myself. For the fortieth time, gay is not a lifestyle, it's a predilection.

Your marriage does not make you straight, nor does your saying that you are. What does make you straight is... See if you can follow me... Not angling for furtive mansex in the men's can with cops. I mean, I may be gay, but that's just nasty.

Of course, the cop is a blonde. You may not know this about me, but I'm not partial to blondes. Well, only the women: you know, Marilyn, Diana, Pam -- Oh, sorry Senator. I know how you get when people start talking about women. Would you like a Tum's?
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Remembering... Buddy Hackett

True, Carson was a bit of a crypto-fascist. Nevertheless, he ran a good show. Here, then, from the late 80s (judging by the set) is Johnny himself with birthday boy Buddy Hackett.
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