Thursday, December 20, 2007

Things I have learned from the sitemeter...

First of all, it's really easy to freak yourself out. (Oh no! Somebody from Next Town Over where a bunch of New SLAC faculty live keeps visiting this site! They must be associated with New SLAC! Oh, crap, what if they're on the search committee? Uh, wait, it's ... um, me. Never mind.

In order not to look like a complete idiot, I hasten to add that I don't live in Next Town Over, and up until a couple of weeks ago, hits from my home computer registered as coming from Other Town Farther Out.)

Secondly, I seem to be getting hits from an extraordinary number of students looking for analysis of either Herrick's poetry or "Lady Windermere's Fan." The first group will almost certainly come away disappointed; as for the second ... well, I'd LOVE to see someone plagiarize my composite essay on Oscar Wilde. Go on, lazy AP English students. I dare you. (On the other hand, those of you who are seriously interested in learning more about this play should definitely check out this fine collection of YouTube videos.)

Search strings on this topic range from the mundane to the bizarre: oscar wilde nature society passage; how does the play lady windermere's fan by oscar wilde reveal the values of the charachters and the nature of their society; odd trick lady windermere’s fan; oscar wilde highlights of life; tea orwell oscar wilde; Lady Windermere’s AP essay; SOMETHING YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT OSCAR WILDE; and, my personal favorite, farting lord windermere.

Other search strings: st. lucy with a quill; MLA interview "haven't heard" (aw, whoever you are, I'm sorry and I hope you've had better luck since then); making him a maid; harry potter custom robes; petruchio's views on marriage; the pirates have dealth with me like thieves of mercy mean; fun facts Jane Goodall blog; and, most intriguingly, research paper on lipstick.

All in all, this is quite intriguing.

4 comments:

Sisyphus said...

I do that too (oh no! someone from my school is reading my blog!!! And posting via Blogger!!! Oh, wait...)

I had forgotten about the AP composite essay: :)

I'm hoping that Oscar Wilde was wearing the lipstick they are researching! :)

Fretful Porpentine said...

I'm sure he wore it to his MLA interviews, along with his Harry Potter custom robes.

Bardiac said...

Me, too! Then I realized it was me.

OMG, I just had an image of medievalists having to wear robes to interviews. One of my colleagues threatens to wear robes the first day of classes, just to weird students out.

Fretful Porpentine said...

I think the MLA would be infinitely better if people wore costumes. I mean, I guess they sort of do, since there are no circumstances other than job interviews when I would ever wear a suit, but I wish they were fun costumes.