Blog Guy, I’ve seen readers mention wagering large sums on the most popular items in your blog, but I didn’t believe it until now. I’m in Las Vegas, and the gaming in a classy casino has stopped while we await your April results.  My money is on that emaciated model.

Ouch, I hope you hedged your bet a bit. Yours was number three. The top item was $60,000? I only parked for an hour!, about a new kind of urban car parking being tested. The post was very, very popular.

But if that was number one, why are you illustrating these results with a Victoria’s Secret model from the second-place item?

Oh, get real. Here are the top five:

5. Babe, can we skip this museum?

4. 75 MPH? Must be a school zone!

3. The bride’s shoulder blades were stunning…

2. News is skimpy on the bikini beat

1. $60,000? I only parked for an hour!

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Blog Guy, I’m very interested in how news is covered. Let’s say you hear about something new. How do you cover it?

Well, let’s take news from Victoria’s Secret. It turns out they’re going to be selling their swimsuits in stores, instead of just online and in catalogs. This is big news, because with summer coming, women are facing a shortage of places to buy beach wear. Some cities are down to their last four or five thousand shops!

I hear you. That IS a big story, especially with online and catalog shopping being so tough. So then, you would send a reporter to learn more about this and write a story, huh?

Are you stupid? No! We’d send a photographer to shoot the swimsuit models! Heck, another major news organization sent TWO photographers on this story!

Other posts about Victoria’s Secret

Victoria’s Secret model Marisa Miller (2nd R) poses with models during a store appearance at the Victoria’s Secret store in New York April 2, 2008. Victoria’s Secret announced they will be selling their swimwear collection in stores nationwide. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

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Hey, Blog Guy! I don’t know if you remember me. You recently wrote about my search for some beautiful women I saw in New York City: Dude seeks attractive mystery women.

As a result of your blog a lot of people offered to help, and yesterday I found them, in Los Angeles! But now here’s the problem. When I approached them, they waved brassieres at me! Don’t you think that’s a little, you know, brazen? Forward? Assertive? Brassy? Trampy? Tawdry? How do I know they’re not floozies, if you catch my drift?

You moronic yokel, you misread the social signals! That’s how women in California show their political leanings. A chick waving a red bra is a Republican, and blue is for Democrats. These ladies were just inviting you to engage in lively debate.

Related: Okay, who had 131 in the pool?

Victoria’s Secret models pose at the launch of the Biofit Uplift Bra in Los Angeles March 4, 2008. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

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Dear Blog Guy: Help! Today in New York I spotted three nice-looking women. I was too shy to introduce myself, but now I wish I had. They seemed extremely natural and unaffected.

They laughed a lot, so I’m guessing they are quite witty. One poked her cheek like it was numb, and another tapped her teeth, so maybe they just came from the dentist, if that helps. They also blew kisses for no apparent reason, so they could be trying to overcome shyness.

Why oh why did I let them out of my sight! Can you help?

Sorry, I need more to go on. New York City is a big place. Do you happen to remember if you saw them in a particular store?

Victoria’s Secret Angels (L-R) Selita Ebanks, Izabel Goulart and Karolina Kurkova pose together during a store appearance in New York February 7, 2008. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

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There’s an odd new trend, naming airplanes after women. I don’t mean aviation pioneers like Amelia Earhart. I mean like the Victoria’s Secret models. The latest example is this Spice Girls thing, where they paint up the fuselage, invite cameramen, and the next thing you know we’re issuing 17 still photos, a slideshow and a video clip. I guess that sounds fair.

The thing is, nobody seems to have time to be clever anymore. Spice One isn’t a very imaginative name. If this trend had begun back when sex goddess Jayne Mansfield was alive, hers could have been called Plane Jayne. And if Mother Teresa had her own airliner, it could have been Nun One. Now that’s fun!

Oh well, a few more years and a few more wrinkles, and they’ll be able to call this one “Old Spice.”

Spice Girls unveil a Boeing 747 plane named “Spice One” at Los Angeles international airport on December 12, 2007. REUTERS photos by Mario Anzuoni

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Just to catch you up, I have been a bit amused this week at the abundant coverage of those Victoria’s Secret models, starting on Monday when we filed 15 shots of their arrival in California.

I mean, that’s not such a huge deal. Even Jed Clampett managed to get to the West Coast.

Well anyway, then they got an award in Hollywood, then they put on make-up, and then they held some kind of a fashion show. One thing leads to another with these gals, and our total for four days is now up to 131 photos. My guess in the office pool was 642 shots for the week. We’ve got three days to go, so I think I’m still in the running. If you’re interested, here’s a slideshow of the models:

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Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2007 in Hollywood, California November 15, 2007. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

After months of a J.D. Salinger sort of existence, the Victoria’s Secret models are back making real news again. We moved 15 pictures of them landing in a plane, as you saw in this blog yesterday, followed by 11 more photos and a video report of them getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Wait a minute. Don’t you have to be like Jack Nicholson or Meryl Streep or somebody talented to get one of those Walk of Fame star things?

Actually, that gets a little murky. Some of the coverage said they got an “honorary” star, which I guess may be a different kind, where you don’t exactly need to be Hilary Swank. It turns out the models also got an “award of excellence,” which isn’t given to just anybody. Or at least, not to just anybody who wears clothes.

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Victoria’s Secret models pose after receiving an “Award of Excellence” star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, November 13, 2007. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Some of you have been concerned that we haven’t met our photo quota of those elusive supermodels in 2007, as discussed recently in my blog post Are Victoria’s Secret models turning shy? 

It appears we’re trying to make up for it at the end of the year, starting with 15 shots of Victoria’s Secret models arriving on their own plane.

It isn’t clear to me exactly what the deal is on this plane. Like, do the models pilot it and everything? ”This is Heidi Klum and I’ll be your captain….”  I think we may safely assume not a morsel of food is served on the flight.

How do you equip an aircraft whose purpose is to allow a load of supermodels to look their very best the instant they arrive? Do they have one long makeup mirror, and blow dryers at every seat, or do they just blast each model with Scotchgard when they board?

A slideshow of the arrival

Models  pose at Los Angeles International airport November 12, 2007.  REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

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Blog Guy, of all the famous people you write about, who attracts the most readers? I mean, if you wanted to sell out totally and rerun stuff just to boost your blog traffic, who would you turn to?

Let’s see. A few months ago I did some items about these models from Victoria’s Secret, and readers seemed to find them very interesting, so maybe I could dredge up some of those posts. But I’d feel kind of ashamed, and I’m not sure I could even find them again. Hold on, speak of the devil, here are some of them right now…

It’s almost like getting publicity for free!

What’s a model doing in a place like this?

Farewell to the Victorian era?

Victoria’s not-so-secret models…

They can fly! They can fly!

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This week, we moved some newsphotos of a new Victoria’s Secret uplift bra, and the question suddenly hit me: what are those darned supermodels doing these days? The year 2007 is half over, and Reuters has had only 32 pictures illustrating their adventures, compared with nearly 200 pictures for 2006!

Of course, 2006 was an exceptional year, what with one of the models winning the Nobel Prize for Undergarments, two of them being elected to the U.S. Senate, and another finding a cure for a tropical disease between beach photo shoots. But all that’s history now.

Victoria’s Secret, you need to pay attention. The U.S. just named a new poet laureate, and it’s not one of your models! Unless one of them announces her presidential candidacy soon, or goes to the space shuttle to unveil “space lace” or some such thing, it’s going to be hard to justify a sudden burst of photo coverage before Christmas. We can’t just cover stuff that isn’t really newsworthy, can we?

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Models Heidi Klum (R) and Marisa Miller pose during the launch of the new Victoria’s Secret Body by Victoria Full Coverage Uplift bra in Los Angeles August 1, 2007. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni