*The* Google Entry

I was goofing around at lunch and made this discovery: You know who's either REALLY widely linked or just really smart at marketing themselves? The folks at the top of the list when you Google "the."

The full story: In solving a puzzle, I ran across the word "pend," and it struck me that I'm not actually convinced that "pend" is a word anyone ever uses. "Pending," sure. And things depend, and we append stuff, and doom is often impending, and folks wear pendants. But I don't think I've ever seen the word "pend" used as a word all by itself, without other letters attached, and I can't even imagine how you could. ("I wonder if this is one of those election results that will pend.")

So I Googled "pend," and discovered that I seem to be right. Far and away the most common usage is for some city or region called "Pend Oreille." Didn't see a single pend-meaning-to-await-judgment anywhere. There should be a note next to it: "Actually, this word is never used except in 'pending' form."

And then, while I was thinking about commonly used words, I Googled "the." Imagine my surprise!

By the way, when you Google "teh," the first link is to a Wikipedia article about "teh", and how it is used as a joke in leetspeak.