Its Trouble...: 02/01/2018

Several years ago, I posted a photo of a lunch that others from my work and I enjoyed at a rare find in New England: an actual Chinese restaurant (as opposed to "authentic" or "real" ones that are easy to find and even more easily disappoint). The restaurant in question is Sichuan Gourmet in Billerica, Massachusetts (of all places). The food was great.

Typically in New England, when you are given a food rating of spiciness, hot is actually medium. medium is actually mild, and mild somehow even more mild. At Sichuan Gourmet, spicy dishes were actually spicy! Hot was hot! In fact, hot was very hot!

So, what's so special about the photo I posted from this restaurant? For some reason, over 347,000 other people thought it was significant enough to view it. This is surprizing for a few reasons. First, it's amazing that Sichuan Gourmet is being searched and found on Google by hundreds of thousands of people in a place like Billerica. Second, it's amazing that my photo is being found in a sea of dozens of other photos at this location. Third, it's amazing that the number of people choosing my photo to view is 347,000+.

Since I don't know how to see view numbers for the other photos from this location, and I don't know if this is actually a lot for this location. I have many other photos on Google for arguably much more popular places that only received a few views. Some of my photos have 11K+, 22K+, 60K+, and even 73K+ views for a photo of perfume at a Banana Republic (which also baffles me). From the rarity of these high counts, my guess is that even these numbers are fairly extraordinary, even at popular places.

Side note, Billerica is not pronounced bil-LER-i-cah, bil-LAIR-ri-cah or bil-le-RI-cah. It's pronounced BIL-ric-a, with a bit of bitterness infused into each of the three syllables. This video should help. (Yes, this is really a really thing.)