Listen to the media today, and virtually all you hear about is Hurricane Sandy, a.k.a. the Frankenstorm.
But look at social media, and you'll first see Painter Bob Ross, Notre Dame football and the Denver Broncos. Those were the top-searched terms on Google for Sunday (the latest info the site has published). The weekend is always a big time for football during the season. But still, it's curious that what is perhaps the greatest East Coast storm ever didn't even rank in the top 10. Not even the World Series winning San Francisco Giants show up.
The very top term, with more than a million searches, is painter Bob Ross, who is honored in a Google Doodle on its home page today. Ross became famous for "The Joy of Painting," a PBS show, running more than a decade, in which he demonstrated key oil-painting techniques. Ross, who died in 1995, would have turned 70 today.
On Twitter, Hurricane Sandy comes in at number two, behind the discussion #ToMyFutureSon — people's wishes and wisdom for a child yet to be born. Also near the top is #FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Beyond being popular for information about Hurricane Sandy, it's trending mostly because of what may be considered a retroactive gaffe by Mitt Romney. In a 2011 GOP primary debate, when asked about federal funding for disaster relief, he launched into a statement on the need to cut federal spending.
