Skin in the Game

It’s one of my narcissistic rituals to check my web stats every morning. The numbers are interesting, sure, but it’s the search queries that never fail to disappoint.

Most of the searches are what you might expect for this site… topics related to Big Medium, web design and content management. But charmingly random searches turn up daily, and they make me happy. It’s always fascinating to see what misguided winds have brought people to these fair shores.

Today may have produced the best find so far: “How much does elephant skin cost?”

Yes, friends, as of this writing, searching Google for “how much does elephant skin cost” brings up this site as the third search result. (I fear that this post may bump me up to number one.)

While I’ve never considered the question before, I now have an overwhelming curiosity to find out why someone might want elephant skin and, okay why not, how much it costs.

Meanwhile, I feel that I should make clear several things:

• No elephants were harmed in the making of this post.
• I do not sell, purchase or otherwise consume elephant skin.
• Eat your heart out, SEO fanatics: I’m in Google’s top ten for “how much does elephant skin cost” without even trying.