You see, Munson shares a few Manhattan-based friends with us, friends who for the past few months have been insisting, "OMG you have to meet Munson!" We'd heard stories about him sleeping with this or that socialite, getting married on a whim in Vegas, getting a DUI in the drive-thru of a Taco Bell in Florida, the relationship he destroyed with a tasteless Natalee Holloway joke, but for one reason or another, mainly out of social malaise, our meeting John Munson has yet to take place, but we, as well as the rest of America, were introduced to him in a big way this past Friday night.

It was the finale of Jeopardy's 25th season and Munson, who really was introduced by the show's announcer as a "self-proclaimed gadabout," was one of the contestants. As soon as we heard this and saw the ascot, the suit, the pinky ring, the loop in his signature to form something resembling a cock on his podium display screen, and finally the winking at the camera, we knew that this had to be the John Munson we'd heard so much about. A quick text message confirmed that our suspicions were correct.

Though the entire Jeopardy episode is available for viewing on YouTube, we had our video team put together a montage of memorable Munson moments from the show, including the rather sweet and sad story of his motivation for appearing on the show as well as his wrong answer to the Final Jeopardy question asking which 69 year-old singer toured in 2009 and had a number one hit in 1984, the year Jeopardy first went on the air.





After the show we were forwarded the text of an invitation Munson sent out to friends prior to his appearance on the show seeking audience support. It reads in part:

It's official. I'm going to be a contestant on the television game show Jeopardy! As a lot of you know, this has been a dream of mine since I was a kid. While some people fantasized about going to space, or hitting a home run in the world series, or having a threesome, for me it was Jeopardy. And threesomes. Since I got the call a few weeks ago, I've been doing everything I can to prepare - studying my presidents, attempting (and failing) to grow a mustache, buying a bunch of fake bling on eBay, figuring out how to write my name so it looks like a penis, - and now, as a final touch, I'm trying to assemble a posse.

While it doesn't appear as though Munson succeeded in his efforts to "assemble a posse," he definitely succeeded in bringing attention to himself, as the word "gadabout" topped the Google trends list for a few hours after his appearance on the show aired nationally.





And, of course, the Twittering classes went nuts over John Munson.





Could it be that we have a new Gawker fameball in the making here? We're sure that between his blog and his Twitter page and whatever stories get sent into us, John Munson has the potential to become a familiar character in the Gawker lexicon. Don't let us down John.





And again, Munson's entire Jeopardy appearance is on YouTube here, here, here and here.

According to a Google Trend count taken about 45 minutes ago, six of the top fifty Google searches have to do with Old Navy and these goddamn flip-flops. The cheapest iteration of The Gap (and the Mormon Mommy approved "angel-wear" to American Apparel's "satanist chic") is having some kind of sale today only. These things are a dollar each, there's a five-pair per-person limit on them (and apparently, seven colors. Ouch). Naturally, people are Twittering this kind of thing, because it's BREAKING NEWS.

One Twitterite ominously warns: "Do not attempt old navy today." Another citizen-journalist and avid Batman fan reports brawls! "It was crazy!!! People fighting over $1 flip flops!!!" Yet another one notes an hour-long wait in New Jersey.

There's actually an Old Navy ten minutes down the street from Gawker's satellite location, but seeing as how I have yet to get a smoke in this morning, you're not getting any on-the-ground reportage from me. I imagine the scene is (mostly) the same all over America: hungry, rabid masses, chewing on coca leaves, bayoneting each other for the final pair of sky-blue, flimsy rubber footwear.

Meanwhile, back on Google Trends, the search query "land of make believe" sits all lonely-like at 98, away from all the cool kids/searches in the front. Believe us, "land of make believe," we always - especially on occasions like this - wish we could be with you. One day, you'll be a "volcanic" search. One day, you'll be a fully grown Google Trend.

Earlier today, "Julia Allison" was the No. 1 search term on Google Trends, which measures fast-rising searches. (It's down to No. 3 at the moment, behind "scott podsednik" and "lil kim wardrobe malfunction".)Why are large numbers of people who have never heard Allison's name before trying to Google the relentless egoblogger who, despite her best efforts to cultivate fame without achievement, remains little-known outside of New York media circles?

It has to be her Saturday-night romance with Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler. Reports of her standing between Cutler's beefy thighs at a nightclub have brought her to the attention of a whole new audience: football fans. How frustrating this must be for someone who drunkenly insists that she's a "brilliant businesswoman." Now she's best known as a football player's Saturday night girl.

A user on eBaum's World, a site which posts pictures and invites often profane discussion, suggested his peers search on a string of icons — "✈ ▌▌" — and thereby launch it onto Google Trends, the search engine's tracker for swiftly rising Internet phenomena.

The trick worked; Google's algorithm declared the glyph's rise "volcanic." And despite a surge of protests about its tastelessness, the Googlers have yet to censor the term, as they've been known to do with other offensive searches which show up on Google Trends, like a swastika symbol which showed up last summer.

Officially, Google says it has robots which take care of this: "The algorithm also filters out spam and removes inappropriate material." In reality? The 9/11 hack shows how easy it is to fool Google.

• Julia Allison - Jersey City, NJ
• Gossip Girl - Makati Philippines
• Blog Comments - Perth, Australia
• John Mayer - Albany, NY
• Ashley Alexandra Dupre - Reston, VA
• Bennigans - Bay City, MI
• Fat Cat - Stockton, CA
• Scrabulous - Halifax, NS
• The Gays - Philadelphia, PA
• Lindsay Lohan - Monterrey, Mexico

• Add your own!

• #6 "where do i vote"
• #12 "what is super tuesday"
• #23 "fat tuesday"
• #31 "am i registered to vote"

UPDATE: Under what circumstances could Carter's elite spot become one of the most queried terms on the Internet on a Friday in January? Why if Regis and Kelly guest host Howie Mandel went there last night with producer Michael Gelman and discussed it on the show today of course! The restaurant had 86'd two menu items by the time Mandel arrived, which rankled him a touch. Howie, honey, if you're going there for the food, you're missing the point.

Valley analysts act as if Yahoo and eBay are losing to some giant enemy, but everything sure looks healthy — look! Their trend lines on Google Search are just fantastic!

Yahoo and eBay Form Advertising Alliance [NYT]
Yahoo and eBay searches [Google Trends]