AND THE HITS KEEP ON COMING

"Thanks, Kev, for
keeping my name
before the public!"

I find it interesting when older pieces on this blog suddenly get hits, often for no discernible reason. One could hazard a guess that people who've read the latest "Breaking News" click on the NEWS label to search out more. By why the  sudden interest in teddy bear sex? On second thought, I don't want to know.

Other than the COVID pieces, the most popular appear to be the movie reviews. Lately, my review of the 1943 B-movie Gangway for Tomorrow, posted over seven years ago, got 25 hits. I believe it was Robert Ryan month on TCM recently -- or it could be I've become the number one gateway for his fans. Flip a coin, then flip it again if you guessed the latter.
 

Hamilton and George Washington fight to see who
looks more like a wax dummy.

In the last month, perhaps because of Hamilton streaming on Disney+, I've gotten 77 hits for my review of the George Arliss version. Initially, I thought it was accidental: people Googling "Alexander Hamilton movie" or some such, and accidentally clicking on my page. 

But a little investigation shows that they're actually searching for "Alexander Hamilton 1931." I'm honored to report that, of the over 10-million Google results that come up under that search, my site is the fifth most popular. Success at last! As I write this, 28 people have gotten my take on George Arliss in the last 24 hours, something I trust he's grateful for in the afterlife.

"So that's where I left that dead body!"

Another winner, at 192 hits in the last six months, was my  review of The Sin of Nora Moran. Most of that came when TCM announced that it was running the newly-restored print over the spring. When I originally posted it in April 2013, I lamented how Nora Moran was available only in a mediocre print on YouTube, and that it would likely never be restored. 

Either the word got out to UCLA, or it's just a coincidence that someone who could do a good deed actually did so. Either way, I'm happy it happened, although, as usual, secretly sorry that the world now knows what used to be the province of just a few diehard pre-Code movie fans. I'm selfish that way.

The COVID pieces have reached the double digits as well. It's impossible to know, however, how many people were actively searching them out or were referred to by regular readers. Early on, the pieces were getting a lot of hits from Italy, when, at the time, COVID was ravaging the country. The goofball in me wanted to think total strangers who lived 4,000 miles away and whose first language wasn't English were actually interested in my take on life in New York during COVID. Makes sense, doesn't it?

What do they want from me when they've got this?

As the weeks and months went by, I eventually noticed that, every few days, the number of hits from Italy jumped to roughly 80 somewhere between 2:00 and 4:00 a.m. New York time, whether I posted something or not during those days. 

In fact, of the 2,200 hits I've gotten in the last month, 783 emanated from Italy. Regular readers? Bots trying unsuccessfully to leave comments in hopes of having me click to their sites or leave a (non-COVID) virus of their own? Hey, if there really are Italians reading this, could you leave a comment for once?

Russia, on the other hand, could use all the diversion it can get from me.

Number two in my readership in the previous four weeks, is the US at 718 hits. How many of these people are for real is up for debate. But you know what isn't? That the 265 from Russia are definitely  up to no good. 

Or are they? Last week, I received two, count 'em, two hits from Russia -- the same week I received two hits on a 2016 piece entitled "Referral Madness", where I speculated the reasons why I suddenly had 300 "readers" a day. (Hint: they all came via a Russian search engine.) 

I know my last name is Russian, but it's unlikely my wannabe comrades are looking to have a reunion. Nope, this was, and continues to be, just an emboldened motherland flexing its digital muscles by trying to infect as many American sites as possible. But because bots can't leave spam here, my laptop should remain Putin-free. 

There is hope for me as far as real readers are concerned. The majority of hits appear to be referred from legit search engines, either in the US or their international counterparts (i.e. Google.com.au), or sites like Facebook and Pinterest. I would like to think they read each piece all the way through. I would also like to think someone will find a cure for COVID in five minutes.

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