I have to say that the other newbie—9—looks awfully intriguing (if not downright weird). Check out the review from CT Movies. See what I mean?

Top Five Books (according to USA Today research)
1. The Last Song, by Nicholas Sparks
2. Eclipse, by Stephenie Meyer
3. The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
4. New Moon, by Stephenie Meyer
5. Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer

Notables: It's probably worth keeping an eye on The Last Song, because after writing The Notebook, Sparks could spread peanut butter on paper and people would buy it. The Last Song deals with marriage, divorce, and the effect it has on a kid. It's already being made into a movie starring the ever-popular Miley Cyrus.

Top Five Albums (according to Billboard)
1. The Blueprint 3, Jay-Z
2. Time of Our Lives, Miley Cyrus
3. I Look to You, Whitney Houston
4. Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Raekwon
5. #1s…And Then Some, Brooks & Dunn

Notables: Notice who's #2 on the list? That's why I said "the ever-popular Miley Cyrus" in the previous section. The girl is everywhere.

Top Singles (according to Billboard)
1. "I Gotta Feeling," The Black Eyed Peas
2. "Down," Jay Sean (featuring Lil' Wayne)
3. "Party in the U.S.A.," Miley Cyrus
4. "Run This Town," Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West
5. "Use Somebody," Kings of Leon

Notables: There's nothing here to report, so maybe you can spend some time reading about how Kanye West (#4) made about a million enemies last weekend. Man—between Kanye and congressman Joe Wilson, rude interruptions in public places are making quite a comeback.

Top Five Web Searches (based on the Google Trends report for Thursday)
*Exercise caution when searching; some topics may be inappropriate.
1. doug giles
2. alan thicke
3. archer fx
4. s e cupp
5. se cupp

Notables: Doug Giles is one of the folks behind the recent fall of ACORN, an organization that aims for community reform. I guess when Giles isn’t taking part in political sting operations, he’s a minister of some Miami church called Clash Church. Is it just me, or is it rather interesting that a minister was behind this?

I have to admit that #2 is what caught my attention this morning. Why was everyone so concerned about actor Alan Thicke at the close of their Thursday? I mean, I loved Growing Pains, too, but that was years ago. Well, his sudden boost of popularity either has to do with a funny reference to him in last night’s season premiere of The Office (Michael said one of the summer interns looks like Alan Thicke), or the fact that the once-popular actor is now hosting small-circuit beauty pageants with Florence Henderson (The Brady Bunch).

Archer is an animated comedy on FX. It has been delayed for some reason.

Numbers 4 and 5 show the ongoing power of Rush Limbaugh. On his show yesterday, he mentioned a not-so-well-known conservative columnist named S. E. Cupp. She had been on Larry King's show, and Rush liked her answer to a question about race and politics. Knowing his listeners probably didn’t know her from Adam (or would it be Eve?), he told them to Google her. Google her, they did. And here she is taking two of the top five spots.