"I Am a Gay American" Grabs Attention

"WOW! I did not see this coming!" exclaimed one blogger, pretty much summing up the shock-and-awe power of New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey's sudden (and very public) admission of a homosexual, extramarital affair and his resignation on Wednesday. His simple but powerful "I am a gay American" statement booted him from out of nowhere into leading positions among key people, key issues and key links in Thursday's BlogPulse results.

Combined with California Justice Joyce Kennard's decision that annulled some 4,000 gay marriage ceremonies performed earlier this year by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, well, BlogPulse has kind of a rainbow theme for the next few days.

By sheer numbers, key links to news about McGreevey's resignation and Kennard's gay-marriage decision grabbed nine of Thursday's top links. Among Thursday's burstiest people, the New Jersey gang and the California gang took seven of the top 10 positions (the governor, members of his staff, the judge, the couple involved in her annulment decision, etc.). And among key phrases, the gay theme appeared in 11 of the top 15 hits in Thursday's blogs.

In the non-rainbow-but-still-atmospheric department, this week's Perseid meteor showers got a few hits, and in the terra-firma weather department, the National Hurricane Center made an appearance because of the two hurricanes slamming the Florida coast.

Question of the day: are the 2004 summer Olympics so much a non-story that the event is barely being mentioned by bloggers? Thursday's results had only a few links, one about Iraq's soccer victory over Portugual and an ESPN hit about, shall we say, "extracurricular" Olympic activities.

Bizarre news of the day has to be about the untimely and bizarre death of Floridian Gayle Laverne Grinds, all 480 pounds of her (and no 11 among burstiest people on BlogPulse). No comment, because what is there to say?