Daily Cup O Google

Your day according to Google: Ho, ho, ho! It's a Christmas Eve miracle -- Google Trends is 95 percent filled with good news, general cheer, and overall happiness. There's not an "autopsy photo" search or a celebrity death hoax to be found. In fact, the No. 1 search is for "NORAD Santa Tracker," the Web site run by the North American Aerospace Defense Command deep in the heart of nuke-resistant Cheyenne Mountain outside of Colorado Springs. Normally, this group of technicians tracks the flight path of anything sinister in or near American air space. They can detect missile launches on the other side of the world while the missile is still on the firing pad, and they followed the doomed flight of the Balloon Boy aircraft. But once a year, they turn their satellites toward the North Pole to follow the progress of Santa Claus.

The number two search is for David Goldman and his years-long battle to regain custody of his son Sean after Sean's mother took him to her native Brazil after they divorced. She died, and Sean has been in the care of his Brazilian stepfamily. Goldman fought for years through numerous roadblocks erected by the well-connected Brazilians, but he at last regained custody yesterday, a happy ending to what had been a torturous legal battle.

Elsewhere, you can get a sense of people's plans for Christmas. Procrastinators are searching for Walmart's holiday hours so they can sneak out before dawn in a desperate bid to fill some still-empty stockings. The frugal minded are already Googling for after-Christmas sales. The overly-sentimental are searching for Christmas quotes, probably as part of some family torture ritual in which everyone is forced to sit around the yule log with eggnog and match the quote to the movie (this dscriber's favorite: "Halleluiah, holy shit! Where's the Tylenol?" Any guesses?). There is apparently an influx of Poles expected for various Christmas celebrations, as indicated by the high-up search for "Merry Christmas in Polish." And finally there are searches for breakfast casseroles, Christmas quiche and other goodies for breakfast.

The Senate passed a health care bill early this morning, but whether this is seen as an early Christmas present or a Grinchy bummer depends entirely on your political persuasion. As mentioned, there were one or two other non-Christmas items, but they're about birthers, Sarah Palin and other crazies, so our gift to you today is that they'll go unmentioned.

Cup O' Google is taking the day off tomorrow, so Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

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About this dscriber.com column: Like a horoscope, but applicable to anyone with an Internet connection, Daily Cup O'Google reaches into the collective consciousness of frequently googled search terms each morning to predict, at a glance, what conversations will dominate your day and shape the 24-hour news cycle.

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