Concerning my earlier blog about Oregonian's reputation as having a propensity for weed in their brownies, I am here again on the subject, not to renege that comment, rather to provide a clip from an article in last week's Willamette Weekly, that pretty much proves my point. That's science!*

This bit comes from "Weed! Werewolves! Wicca! - Google Trends exposes Portland's brain" by Ben Waterhouse.


"When Earth's most stupendous Internet search engine unveiled Google Trends last month, amateur sociologists and time-wasting cubicle inmates everywhere found a new reason to live.
The highly addictive new feature ranks cities according to how often their citizens Google for any given search term. Thanks to G-Trends (www.google.com/trends), for example, we now know that the pervy people of Brentford, England, seek out "fetish" more than anyone. Rennes, France, is the Internet capital of "lingerie." And as WW reported two weeks ago, Portlanders search "impeach Bush" more than any Americans except those pinkos in Madison, Wisc.
That got us wondering: What else can Google Trends tell us about Portland's secret desires and strangest interests? After a few solid hours of "research," we made some illuminating discoveries.
DOPE
Judging by Google Trends, Portlanders love their controlled substances. We rank first in the world in searches for "marijuana." And "meth." And "liquer"—even though we don't crack the global Top 10 for the correctly spelled "liquor." It seems, however, that Portland's days as a smack capital are bygone—Melbourne, Perth, New York and Seattle all make the Top 10 for "heroin," but PDX is absent. When it comes to "microbrew," we're No. 1 by a landslide. Less gloriously, Portland ranks sixth for "cigs." "

(Found at: http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3231/7638)

This information is nothing to be proud of - but it's interesting nonetheless. I am curious what other cities' Google Trends are. I've not had time to play around with the Google Trends feature, but I intend to take the time to expose the private internet-searching topics of Chicago, IL, Chesapeake, VA, and many other home-towns of the people I know. Mwah-hah-hah-hah-haaaah!

*The information in this article is not scientific.