Newspapers.com is absolutely my go-to for all kinds of insane things from actual information on stuff (particularly the Melbourne Age up till the year 2000, also the Sydney Morning Herald - the only two real Australian newspapers it features) to random nonsense for fun times. It's seriously depressing to see what its top five 'searched' words were in 2022 however. Presumably this is fool Americans trying to understand their world. But surely no-one actually searches on these words alone (it kind of makes it worse to think that they put these together, no doubt with their home towns or states, or their great-grandpappy's name). 'Wrestling' is of course the weirdest one, I mean, what the actual fuck?! 'Murder' is predictable but boring (this is the one I can imagine people do actually just search on - 'hmm, time for a murder. Sherman, set the controls for Dumfuck New Mexico in I think 1878 where Mr. Peachfuzz is just about to kill his five children with a cunning arrangement involving a candle burning through a rope attached to a guillotine.' 'Right away Mr Peabody!'). 'Died' is a funny one, too. But surely once again this is to find out when grandpappy died, not merely someone or something. Or when the dream of doing anything constructive with one's life died. 'Weather' and 'hurricane' are odd as well, I wonder if these are climate denialists or climate conformists? Probs both.
Meanwhile in Australia the wonderful Trove is under threat and I'm bothered by that. It's actually a more sophisticated searcher than newspapers.com (it distinguishes, somehow, between advertisements, illustrated and non-illustrated articles, etc) and really provides a wealth of valuable minutiae not just on Australian stuff but on all the world's stuff. I love Trove.
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