Wow! I admit that I'm impressed.

Considering how many millions and billions of searches Google must get everyday, to have a veggie dish up there gives me a fuzzy feeling.

I don't have illusions that there's a mass-switch to an animal free diet in the population, but still, it's a good sign.

It should be noted that the entry is number 3 at the top "gaining queries", not the top queries. So while the number of queries went up drastically this past week for tofurkey, I'd wager it's still nowhere near the top of the absolute list.

Regardless, a good sign indeed. :)

LA: You are correct that this is the list of gaining queries- I suspect that one cannot print the absolute inquiries in a family publication. But as you say it is a good sign!

Heck, why not have the illusion that there's a mass-switch going on?

The more convinced you are, the more you can convince other people, and the more you can convince other people, the more you can start triggering people's tendency to follow the herd, and the more that happens, the more there really will be a switch.

There was a program on the Food Network sometime in the last couple of weeks that featured tofurkey. Maybe that got people interested??

Recent gainers are almost always spawned by televison, sometimes newspapers or radio. You might like to believe that it was worldwide synchronicity, but I bet that if you researched recent broadcasts via LexisNexis you'd find that a Food Network show or Time magazine article or some other mega media outlet caused the bump.

Regardless of the source of the interest, it's still impressive.

Just think about how much attention the new Xbox is getting! Well, Tofurkey is right behind :D

Um. How many of you have actually tasted "tofurkey"? And is it, you know, within a statute mile of the original in taste?

"Dark tofu or white?" I cannot even imagine (and I have quite the imagination).

P.S. Google tracks your searches and keeps them forever, in case they're needed by some Patriot Act-wielding Red State Senator or something. Check your tofurkey's politics first, is all I'm saying.

P.P.S. Why does this posting mechanism block use of the ellipsis? Is there some prejudice? If it were a tofullipsis would it be let through? Sheesh.

I can't imagine why you'd want to try to make tofu taste like turkey. That's something I just don't understand about modern vegetarianism: If you like the taste of bacon, EAT BACON. If you like turkey, eat that. Don't eat things that have been processed and mangled and chemically altered until they sorta vaguely taste like meat.

Hufu is the ultimate expression of this grotesquerie.

I can tell that my body was designed to eat animals. That's why I have pointy teeth. I understand that vegetarianism is a healthy and advantageous choice for some people. That's cool by me. I simply can't get behind this "Well, we're going to be vegetarians, but we're going to eat pretend meat! Yum!"

BTW: Catering to vegetarians and meat eaters at the same meal need not be difficult. There is a page up at veg.ca called Surviving holiday dinner that includes: diplomacy, tips and holiday recipe links.

"can't imagine why you'd want to try to make tofu taste like turkey. That's something I just don't understand about modern vegetarianism: If you like the taste of bacon, EAT BACON."

Hmm, except that tofu isn't a dead animal. Vegetarianism isn't just about taste, y'know.

"I can tell that my body was designed to eat animals. That's why I have pointy teeth."

Actually, your teeth (and intestines - much too long) are pretty much completely wrong for meat eating (better adapted to biting into fruits - even gorillas have more "meat-eating" teeth than us and they are vegetarians), that's why humans have to do "unatural" things that no other carnivore in nature has to do (things that humans figured out how to do because of their freakish intelligence) like make weapons and cook with fire and such. You'd never be able to kill an animal in nature otherwise, and then your teeth would never get through the skin, and then if you ate raw meat you'd probably be sick like a dog and die after a while.

If I had to wager a guess, I would say that it is probably because people are freaking out about bird flu. The food network thing might play into it, though.

I wonder if tofurkey sees this jump every year around Thanksgiving.