Fishing In Roanoke

Look for an "October Surprise" from the Roanoke Times some day soon. There are apparently plans being made by at least one reporter or editor at the Times to produce another article focused on Jerry Kilgore's mother, Willie Mae Kilgore.

How do I know this? I don't. But I can speculate, based on some of my visitor activity detailed in my traffic statistics.

I am relatively new at blogging, so I still get a "kick" out of checking the traffic statistics. It's one of the cooler aspects of this medium, being able to look at hard data to see where your readers are coming from. Also, because I'm relatively new at this, my statistics are thin enough to spot trends and even individual readers.

For some time now, I have been visited by someone at the Roanoke Times. Mostly one particular person at the Times, as evidenced by the IP address. There's nothing unusual about that, I'm sure. I'm certain all of you have been visited by someone at that paper, or one local to you.

What is unusual, is how this particular Times Computer has begun coming to my site. Typically, before this week, it has been by a direct link. Apparently I am either bookmarked or blogrolled, and that's cool. This week that has changed somewhat. This same computer, the one on which I am obviously bookmarked, has also begun coming to me via various searches. Someone at the Times has been searching Technorati.com this way;

http://www.technorati.com/search/%22willie%20mae%20kilgore%22
Or this one,
http://www.technorati.com/search/%22roanoke%20times%22%20kilgore
Or this one,
http://www.technorati.com/search/%22kilgore%22

It is the nature of those searches that brings me back to the prediction I made in the first paragraph. I hope I am wrong, not only because of the impact it could have on the election, but also because, as much as I dislike the bias at that paper, I would prefer to think they are ethical enough not to do what I suspect them of. I am making this prediction because I feel that if we know it's coming, and we also know it was generated by such a fishing expedition, the impact can be lessened somewhat. The October Surprise will most likely be another "hit piece" on someone in the Kilgore family. Most likely Jerry and Terry's mother.