I've been Googled!

Well, who hasn't.

But thanks to my free Site Meter (bottom of my sidebar on the right), I can see who has entered Google search words that brought them to my blog.

I can see what their search words were and, usually, where those people live. I can also see the post I did that prompted Google to send those users to my blog in the first place.

I can see a lot of things, actually.

Obviously, I have a lot of time on my hands this week. For fun, I thought I'd list the most recent series of Google searches that landed people at my blog from all over the planet.

I MUST get a life.

I'll list the search words first, followed by the location of the person who found me (when available) from the last 100 hits to my site.

The search words tell a lot about the users...and probably a little about me too!

NOTE: I've updated the list with the most recent searches just in the past 24 hours or so up to noon Central Time Wednesday. I've left them unnumbered but they're in this colour...

--Fashion male shorts (Vermont, U.S.)

--Socks with shorts man fashion (Australia)

--Socks sex (Istanbul, Turkey)

--Kim Wilde wardrobe malfunction (London, UK)

--Childporn search words (Barsbttel, Germany)

--Show photos of fatal road kills (UK)

--Pet lovers blogspot dog fighting (Aurora, Colorado, U.S.)

--Uranium pu-36 explosive space modulator description (Bonnie, Illinois, U.S.)

--YouTube beautiful girls long hair (Jakarta, Indonesia)

--The underbelly of a spaceship (Hyattsville, Maryland, U.S.)

--Socks stockings sex (Hull, UK)

--African American female astronomists (Pennsylvania, U.S.)

--Love paragraph analogy (unknown)

--sock stockings sex (UK)

--Bush Stupidity (Brooklyn, New York)

--Air Indian Plane dissaters (somewhere in the U.S.)

--Male anklet (Washington, D.C.)

--Herb Alpert Tijuana Brass Whipped Cream Blog (Washington, D.C.)

--Pluto of Universe update (Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.)

--Male underwear (Ohio, U.S.)

--Blink 182 trivia "they haven't" (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

--Orion Blog (San Antonio, Texas)

--Spaceships that have been to Pluto (Melbourne, Australia)

--White socks blog (Frankfurt, Germany)

--Bomb ba bing ba bomb lyrics (somewhere in the U.S.)

--1 ot sock sizze (Omaha, Nebraska; I'm serious)

--Miss Piggy wardrobe malfunction (Ohio, U.S.)

--Sock sex (UK; Ziggi, this is you, I bet)

--Knee-high socks sex (El Paso, Texas)

--Height of Orion spaceship (NASA, San Jose, California)

--Knee-high socks sex (UK; Ziggi: again?)

--Men more prone to depression after divorce (Ontario, Canada)

1. Stocking Collection (Finland)
2. Why is it called the Enchanted Highway? (California)
3. How many socks do professional football players wear? (UK)
4. Kim Mitchell Girlfriend (U.S. Midwest)
5. Sex in High Socks (Poland)

6. Spaceship Sex & Invocation (UK)
7. Indian females with long beautiful hair (India)
8. Male work fashion tips (U.S.)
9. Hair stylist needed Arctic military (U.S. Midwest)
10. Why is Pluto no longer recognized as a genuine planet? (Australia)

11. Gay sock sex (unknown)
12. Zenbev was useless (Ireland)
13. Orion spaceship (Ireland)
14. Movie Shiny Shorts (Netherlands)
15. Carberry Desert (Winnipeg, Canada)

16. Confusion Corner (U.S.)
17. Snakes in Manitoba (Winnipeg, Canada)
18. Sexual socks (Toronto, Canada)
19. Air Guitar (North Korea)
20. Gay socks (France)

21. Male fashion Paris (Denmark)
22. Peg og Pater (Denmark)
23. Big Avatar (Italy)
24. Fishing without a rod yo-yo (Tampa, Florida)
25. Hair Long Beautiful Hair lyrics (Minnesota, U.S.)

26. Cathartic Experience (unknown)
27. Socks gay (Nova Scotia, Canada)
28. Should men wear anklets? (Virginia, U.S.)
29. How do bird rosellas breath? (Unknown)
30. Miniscus running to fast (California, U.S.)

31. Breaking up when kids are involved (Georgia, U.S.)
32. Hair Long Beautiful Hair song (Louisiana, U.S.)
33. Sworn and Sandals 2 (Finland)
34. Where's Wally Mugs (Spain)
35. Bermuda shorts, socks, sandals (Nova Scotia, Canada)

36. Zenbev (U.S.)
37. Avatar big (Finland)
38. Fashion spaceship (Viet Nam)
39. My son is 22 and seems lost (Australia)
40. Manitoba snakes (Ontario, Canada)

41. Hair vinegar before after pictures (California, U.S.)
42. Spaceship Orion blog (Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.)
43. When flirting becomes teasing (Illinois, U.S.)
44. Snakes in Manitoba (Winnipeg, Canada)
45. Your poofy beautiful hair (U.S.)

46. Knee High socks sex (UK)

LIGHT-HEARTED, LIGHT-HEADED

SUMMER IS FADING

I'M CONFIGURATING

I HAVE A WEEK OFF

BE KIND NOW, DON'T SCOFF

I'M FEELING LIGHT-HEARTED

I BELIEVE I JUST FARTED

MY KIDS CLEAR THE ROOM

FOLLOWING MY SONIC BOOM

I'M GROWING SO WEARY
OF BEING UNCHEERY
IT'S NOW GETTING COOLER
TIME TO BE A TOM-FOOLER

I WANT TO BE SILLY

AND ACT WILLY-NILLY

LOOK UP IN THE AIR

POUR WATER ON HAIR

FOR JUST THIS ONE WEEK

I DON'T WANT TO BE DEEP

BEGONE, SANITIZED!

MAKE ME SIMPSONIZED!

I LONG TO RETURN
TO A TIME WHEN I'D BURN
MY FRIENDS WITH BAD JOKES
GOOD FRIENDS ALL, GREAT BLOKES

WE'D LAUGH, THEM AND ME

PLAYING CARDS UNTIL 3

AIR GUITAR WITH THE BEE GEES

STAYIN' ALIVE, HEEBIE GEEBIES

THE PLANET CAN BE A FORBODING PLACE
ITS STATE OF AFFAIRS, ITS BREAK-NECK PACE
BUSH AND BIN LADEN, IRAQ AND IRAN
FOR ALL I CARE, MOVE TO AFGHANISTAN

AND IT'S THERE I WOULD DROP MY BIG, BAD BOMB

A LAUGHTER GAS NUKE, BA-DA-BING, BA-DA-BONG

TO GET YOU ALL GIDDY AND GOOFY AND GOOD

AND DROP YOUR RELIGION AND OIL IN THE 'HOOD

THE GLOBE USED TO BE A HAPPIER PLACE

WE'VE LOST OUR HUMOUR AND HAPPY FACE

IT'S TIME WE GOT BACK TO OUR SNICKERING WAYS

LEST WE ALL GO DOWN IN A BURNING BLAZE

SO FOR THIS COMING FREEDOM WEEK

I WON'T FOCUS ON THE FREAKS

I JUST WANT TO JOKE AND ENJOY LIFE

AND STAY ABOVE THE CRAP AND STRIFE

MY GOAL IS SIMPLE, TO THE CORE
I WANT TO REVISIT MY OWN LORE
RECAPTURE MY OWN LIFE AS KID
BE WHO I WAS AND WHAT I DID

OF COURSE I AM AN ADULT NOW

I'M OVER 50, BOW-WOW-WOW

THAT'S OK, I WILL SURVIVE

I JUST WANT TO FEEL ALIVE

SO WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN TO ME?
HOLY SMOKES AND GOLLY GEE
THE ONLY WAY'S TO SMILE AND GRIN
LETTING KIDDING, TEASING, GOODNESS IN

I WANT TO LAUGH AND JOKE AND SUCH

THAT'S NOT ASKING FOR TOO MUCH

WITH ALL THE SHIT THAT'S GOING DOWN

IT'S A WASTE OF TIME TO HAVE A FROWN.

I'm a natural tease and I have a goofy sense of humour. It's what keeps me sane, and I need to focus on it more.

What makes you smile these days and keep you from focusing on the stuff that is going on around you?

The Lines that Blur and Grrrr

THERE'S SOMETHING NOT SITTING RIGHT ABOUT THE MICHAEL VICK CASE.

I don't know that it's worldwide news, but I bet there are few North Americans, at least, who haven't heard about this $13-million-a-year player and his transgressions in the past week.

The gentleman below, giving the 1-2 to the media or something in a file picture, is quarterback Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons, the highest-paid player in the National Football League.

In a nutshell, he agreed this week to plead guilty to charges that he operated and funded an illegal dogfighting scheme in the U.S., one in which scores of dogs were killed while fighting or killed afterwards because they failed to win.

People gambled on the outcome of these fights.

Vick is to be sentenced next week, I believe, and he's expected to receive between 12-18 months in prison, although he could face more charges. His pro football career is all but over. He's only 27.

If you need more information on the basics, just Google his name. I believe, though, that's all I need to say. There's a media circus going on about him right now and it's been almost impossible to avoid the cries of outrage.

And I believe outrage is the appropriate reaction to have. But I think a lot of history and context has been missed in all of this, and I think Vick has become a convenient lightning rod for anger that isn't all placed in the right direction.

OK, so you have the basics, if you didn't know them already. This whole thing reeks of the worst of humanity and it makes most peoples' blood boil...or it makes them cry and wonder how people can be so cruel.

There have been books written about dogfighting and the odd movie too.

But for the most part, this is one of those activities that bubble under society's surface, there but not really there, barely acknowledged, something we want to ignore.

My problem with the whole Vick thing is that everyone and their dog, pardon the expression, is screaming all this outrage about this now -- just because of who Michael Vick is and what he is, and that's the way politics and analysts and the media are.

If Joe Blow in Atlanta had been similarly raided and charged, this wouldn't be out there.

Dogfighting would be just as beyond our conscience and our morality as it had been until he was charged.

There's no context being provided, no deeper thought being given to what this is really all about.

Because right now it's all about the feeding frenzy by the justice departments, the police, the animal rights groups and the moralists coming out of the woodwork to feast on a rich, exposed celebrity who dun wrong.

As far as I can tell, dogfighting is a part of some element of American culture, the same as it and many other ugly things are a part of every culture despite their horrid, brutal, unacceptable and in many cases illegal status.

But they still exist, either because the politicians and law enforcement types haven't the resources to put a stop to them or because they know it would be impossible to do so anyway.

And in many cases those things exist for different reasons, usually economic but also based on backwards beliefs or prejudices, and they're usually allowed to exist (even though illegal) and even encouraged, in every culture, race, colour, you name it.

Do any of these things come to mind?

Ku Klux Klan

Cockfighting

Prostitution

Drug smuggling

Bullfighting in Spain (this week they announced it would no longer be shown on TV in Spain because it was "too violent for children"; how can anyone condone THIS activity and consider it any different from dogfighting?)

Child porn

Sexual predators (released on bail continually, only to reoffend)

The baby seal hunt off Canada's Newfoundland coast (they club these infant animals to death for their fur, an activity not only supported by Canada but defended by Canada. How gruesome is THAT?)

Japan, Norway and other nations' killing of whales

These are only a few realities of different cultures that are either completely legal in some countries or are illegal but are not nearly as vigorously monitored or enforced by the law as they need to be or, in fact, in abstentia condoned by those governments.

And there are so many more that are part of the underbelly of every society. They exist. People do them, for whatever reasons, even though the general population would never accept them in a civil society if they had the choice.

But here we are, looking at part of the American underbelly, and this thing called dogfighting. And the reason we are is because a man named Michael Vick is involved, it's the only reason, as if it's all on him and we need to hate him.

Here are facts, people. Let's try to look beyond Vick to the issue of dogfighting itself. Let's tear ourselves, for a brief moment, away from the feeding frenzy. Vick should be a target, but not the only target.

The brief history of dogfighting is that it's believed to have started in ancient Rome as a form of entertainment. It became all the rage in England for 600 years -- reaching its apex in the 1600s -- but was outlawed in 1835 in the UK.

Like everything else, though, it migrated with the settlers...to the U.S. and many other countries. One estimate now pegs the number of people involved in dogfighting in the U.S. alone at 40,000.

Dogfighting is perfectly legal and a popular "sport" in Afghanistan and many other places in the world. It was a popular pastime in Japan and is widespread and popular in several South American countries. It's illegal in Russia but widely practised.

Few places on the planet have not at one time, if not now, condoned it and supported it or done little to curb its growth and popularity.

In the American Deep South, particularly, it seems to flourish under the radar. Most states have outlawed it but some have made dogfighting or attending matches only a misdemeanor rather than a felony.

And my research leads me to wonder how often police and other enforcement agencies pay much attention to it and provide many resources to ensure it doesn't happen or that offenders are caught and punished.

At least, until a perpetrator of Michael Vick's stature shows up. Then they're all over it and it's time to show the world just how the justice system is getting everyone, from the top of the food chain down to the bottom.

Right?

You Kneeded Me, you Kneeded Me

THIS GIGANTIC BUT GENTLE SOUL IS A PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYER ON THE TEAM I OFTEN WRITE ABOUT FOR THE NEWSPAPER I WORK FOR.

Wary of his name being googled and this post being discovered, I am only calling him Dan.

He's a 6-foot-6, 313-pound offensive lineman and one of the nicest guys you'd want to meet. He's from Florida. And he eats like a horse.

Last season, he blew out his knee.

That is, he was hit in such a way that all of the supportive cartilage and ligaments that allow the knee to function as it does were severed, leaving the joint virtually useless.

He was diagnosed with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a torn medial collateral ligament, plus he had severe damage to his meniscus, another critical component of a joint that in his case must stand up to intense physical pressure.

He was gone for the season from an injury that, in later interviews with me, he described as "O-line killers" -- an injury that until recently, ended the careers of offensive linemen but also running backs and anyone else.

My interest in his injury was natural. Because the same type of injury happened to me around 1980, when I was on a 4 1/2-month overland bus trip from England to India and back.

I was playing Frisbee football on a hill in Turkey -- somewhere around Ankara, if I remember correctly -- when I was running as fast as I could and jumped up in the air to catch the Frisbee.

I caught the disc in mid-air but when I came down, my right leg landed in a gopher hole or something.

The rest of my body kept going sideways. Because I was running so fast sideways, I blew out my knee.

It was the first serious sports injury I had ever suffered.

The knee swelled up to about three times its normal size. I knew something was wrong but at the time, I figured I was invincible.

We applied ice to it, the swelling went down and I continued on the trip.

Several months later, back home, I had it checked out. I was told there was a slight meniscus tear and I had surgery to repair it.

But the problem didn't go away. My knee could bend unnaturally sideways. There was no support.

I could not play sports and just dealt with it. I got married, we had our first child and my knee kept collapsing on me.

One time it slipped out on some ice and I fell with my daughter, almost hurting her.

Eventually, after two more operations, I finally had what's called a total ACL reconstruct.

They cut me open in several places near the knee.

They took cartilage from my lower thigh and used it to take the place of my ACL, wrapping it through the knee joint and fastening it to a spot below my knee with a bolt.

That procedure was about 15 years ago and I now have pretty normal support in my right knee.

So I could associate with what Dan has gone through.

Except that while I have about 12-14 inches worth of scars from the procedure I had back then, all he has from his modern arthroscopy (scoping) procedure are three little pen-width-sized holes in his knee.

Even though he had the same procedure done, more or less, the same repair for the same problem -- he has had the benefit of drastically improved technology, knowledge, surgical know-how and recovery strategies.

His ACL is more solid than mine is now, but his is solidified by cartilage taken from a cadavre.

He's back playing and performing for the top offence in the league now, although he has to wear a knee brace.

Me?

I'm two decades older than him and my big physical activity will be playing in a benefit softball game next week for a former National Hockey League player, longing for those days when my body could do anything.

Dan and I became pretty good buds talking about our respective injuries and how drastically things have changed in medicine.

So I did a big story on it and the package finally ran in our paper this this past week.

And here are some of the pictures of the two of us together taken last season after his surgery, pictures that were never used for the story, but which I think illustrate how far sports medicine has come...

I don't know whether you can click on these pix to make them larger.

But Dan's thumb and forefinger are pointing at the little holes he has from the arthroscopic surgery he had, while my fingers are pointing at some of my scars from the under-the-knife procedures I had.

You might also be able to see a long scar running down the front of my shin, just below my knee joint. The bump you see at the bottom of that scar is the screw that's holding my knee together.

So I guess the moral of this story is that while he has much bigger calves, thighs, hands and probably most any other thing you can think of, my scars are a whole lot bigger than his.

So I should get a lot more of your sympathy.

And besides, he said feeling very small and old, it's all how you use it.