Main Stream, Wild Mushrooms & Hitwise

Here's a post-modern post. Labor day was lovely - hope everyone got some time off. I finally made it to the mountains of Colorado to get in some mushrooming. (That only took me 4 years...)
Was lovely to bag some "Kralovksy Hrib (King's Bolete)" and "Brezovy Kozak (Birch Bolete)." The birch bolete signaled a full circle: it grew regularly under the birch in my back yard in college (Eugene), and I remember reading it also grew under aspen; finally, I found one under an aspen. Nice.
Even though I learned to mushroom in the Czech Republic, where it's a mainstream activity, I'm always hesitant to admit to it in the US. People do a double take, like you said "breast milk" or something.
So, it was funny to be peeling and slicing wild boletes while catching up on Bill Tancer's Hitwise blog, this morning. Bill's has become one of my top five favorite blogs, though I admit that feels a little like becoming a tabloid junkie. Is it really news that there was a spike in Internet searches for "toy recall?" Isn't this a little like watching the news about people watching news? (Where's the substance?)
I suppose if the Internet is all about "access to Information" (my mantra), then Hitwise is in some ways the score; all our collective business plans, product releases, SEM budgets, etc., etc., are reduced to a collective score board. Or something.
Highlights from Bill's blog:

• Bill revisits their "tipping point" observations, building on Heather Hopkins' earlier post.
  Still seems one of the valuable tools Hitwise has brought us (ability to see & monitor this when launching & managing a new site or media campaign).
• "I also Love Food" is silly & fun, but how frickin' COOL that we can see this. Brings some accuracy questions to mind, but hindsight is 80/20...
• "Free, Discount, Cheap..." is a glance at language. Sandra Hanchard's original treatise is more meaty and interesting. (I knew Sandra in a former life & it's no surprise.) Language is the original democracy, and as usual, commerce, currency and the Internet have only accelerated that and made it more clear. How many (SEM) budgets are out there, for flavors of the word "vintage?" LOL