Five years gone already?
Well, you’ve done it again. Spent another year reading Caterpickles, and I am profoundly grateful for it.
It struck me this week that I’ve been writing this blog for five years now, and I thought an interesting way to close out this final Monday of 2016 might be to look back at the top posts of each year so far.
The top posts from 2016
Caterpickles readers must have encountered a small army of jellyfish when they went to the beach this year, because 2016’s top post was “How long can jellyfish sting after they are dead?” which was actually written in 2011.
Closer to home, however, our lives are still dominated by paper, as you can see from the top post actually written in 2016: “Mommyo, help! Does paper conduct even a low level of electricity?”
Caterpickles being a web blog, the most popular Wordless Wednesday from 2016 was this picture of Canelo mourning the loss of the door that used to connect the office with the master bathroom.

Photo: Shala Howell
The top posts from 2015
Our love affair with paper has stood the test of time, and apparently it’s one a fair number of you share. “Why do they call it 20-lb paper?” topped the charts for posts written in 2015.
This sweet picture of The (then) Eight-Year-Old fishing with her grandfather was the most popular Wordless Wednesday image from 2015.

Photo: Michael Howell
The top posts from 2014
Food apparently dominated everyone’s thoughts in 2014. The most popular post that year was “Why is a watermelon red inside?”, which was actually written in 2011. A close second, however, was the all-important question “What do you serve a party of dragons?”
Grandma’s giant box from Christmas 2013 continued to wow Wordless Wednesday seekers well into 2014.

Photo: Shala Howell
The top posts from 2013
“What did people think caused earthquakes in the olden days? Part Two” dominated the stats for 2013. If you are one of those people who like to read all the posts in a series, here is its partner post: “What did people think caused earthquakes in the olden days?”
Judging by the stats, our fondest Wordless Wednesday memory from 2013 was that time Grace Elvis, Super Criminal behaved so badly The Six-Year-Old had to put her and her feline henchman in timeout.
The top posts from 2012
We wandered around our local neighborhood a lot during 2012, thanks to the Dedham Public Art Project. Which explains our top two posts from that year: “What happened to Dedham Pottery?” and “Why do people throw their shoes on a wire?”
Apparently, I hadn’t yet discovered Wordless Wednesdays in 2012, because I couldn’t find one from that year. So here’s a randomly chosen Caterpickles picture from 2012 instead. I call this one “Yoga with Cat.”

Art: Shala Howell.
Clearly, I pay top dollar for artwork here at Caterpickles. That’s why all of my drawn art is top-notch.
The top posts from 2011
The top post from 2011 involved a fun science-y experiment “In which we pop far too many balloons.”
We have more than a few sleeper posts from 2011, however. “When is Santa’s birthday?”and “Why do pale people get more moles?” received only a modest amount of attention when they were first published, but have appeared in my Top 5 posts every year since. “Could a T. Rex lift a woolly mammoth?” is another post whose true worth would become apparent only with time.
My personal favorite question from 2011 is the one about penguin fashions. “When did penguins first wear sweaters?”
(Who comes up with these questions anyway?)
Since I didn’t do Wordless Wednesdays in 2011 either, here’s a picture from our trip to Davis Farmland in Sterling, MA.
Happy end of 2016, everyone. Thanks for reading Caterpickles for another year. I can’t wait to find out what questions pop up next year.
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