Do you know what the #1 fear of most Americans is? According to a recent Gallup poll, it’s SNAKES, closely followed by our #2 fear: public speaking.

So, THAT, in my opinion, is why Snakes on a Plane has failed to charm movie-goers. Who wants to sit through a movie watching our #1 fear slither across the screen? Talk about nightmares!

I felt completely helpless on our plane last week as we bumped our way through storm clouds north of Atlanta. Our pilot’s calming voice came across the speakers: “Please remain in your seats and turn off all electronics, as we’re experiencing a little bit of turbulence.” I can’t even imagine if we were stuck in our seats with snakes in the floorboard!

But this editorial in USA Today makes the point that the movie’s lack of box-office success, despite a buzz among bloggers, shows that bloggers really don’t have as much power as they think they do.

The author writes:

… It is the underwhelming response to Snakes that reveals the real peril in relying on bloggers to take the nation’s pulse … Ever since the first smarty-pants posted his first unsolicited opinion on the Internet, Americans have become captivated by blog-o-mania — for good reason. For once, we own and operate our own public medium. Power to the people. Vox populi. Yadda-yadda.

He also claims this is “a wake-up call to the mythology of blogging.”

Huh?

It wouldn’t matter to me if every single one of you were blogging about that movie — begging me to go see it. I would NOT go. No way. In contrast, I HAVE gone to see movies and bought books that bloggers have recommended — because I thought, “Oh, that sounds like something I’d like.”

In fact, after reading this review in The Writing Life blog, I’d love to go see “Little Miss Sunshine: A Family on the Verge of a Breakdown.” He says, “It’s been a while since I’ve laughed so hard during a movie … It captured the human spirit in a remarkable fashion and becomes ‘a moving look at the surprising rewards of being losers in a winning-crazed culture.'”

Reading that makes me want to go see it, as well as this comment from a reader:

My husband and I saw this last weekend. It’s absolutely not the type of movie my husband tends to watch but we both loved it and highly recommend it! There is a wonderful review of it in the L.A. Times that is more fun to read after seeing the movie than before. It’s a piece of literature in itself.

I trust the opinions of my favorite bloggers more than reviewers in the newspaper. So I don’t think the influence of blogging is a myth at all. Do you?

Here’s something new I learned today. In case you’ve ever wondered …

Did you know that one cat can produce 420,000 descendents in a seven-year period? I just happened to read that statistic on the wall of the mobile vet we visited today. We took our last cat to be spayed this morning, thus ending our saga, “The Tale of Three Kittens.”

Two years ago, a friend let us adopt her three kittens, a male and two female siblings. We thought it would be fun to let our kids enjoy one litter of kittens. HA! Well, that’s an understatement. We had several litters, and it got to be a full-time job for me finding homes for these kittens. They were cute and fluffy — but the situation got a little out of control.

When I was trying to find homes for our litter last summer, one lady who was interested in a new kitten called me to chat. Within a few minutes, it was clear that she was grieving. Her family pet had recently died, and she wanted to tell me all her favorite stories of the amazing things her cat did.

I’m not much of a phone talker at this stage in life — unless it involves what child needs to be picked up at what time where. Listening to a stranger tell me stories about her cat was too much. At the time I was trying to cook dinner with five children screaming in the background.

It’s interesting where all these little kittens live now — we gave many away to family and friends. One of my cousins sends me snapshots of her two — as if I were their grandmother. Now there’s a thought.

So I just finished giving our calico cat (named “Calla” of course) her antibiotics, as she recovers from surgery. Did I tell you I’ve gotten pretty good at administering medicine to cats? Our two mama cats both got mastitis this summer, poor things. They needed antibiotics for a week. It’s actually much easier to squirt pink stuff down a cat’s throat than to entice a toddler with pink “yukky” medicine on a spoon. Don’t you think?

I’m tired. I just got back last night from a looooong trip to Maryland. I wanted to blog, but I didn’t want to think — so there you have my 420,000 cats post. Maybe that’s something you can share at your next dinner party.