Huh, that was weird....

Something must have been going on yesterday. According to my dashboard stats, Page One got 11,724 page views Tuesday.

That's a lot of daily page views for a site like FWIW which, admittedly, has a rather narrow focus. It's the kind of number I usually see only in the days before an election, when actual Cook County voters come to FWIW trying to figure out the merits of the competing judicial candidates.

When they are competing.

Though this is off topic, allow me to once again point out that, in Cook County, where Republicans are all but extinct, nearly all judicial contests are decided in the Democratic Primary. Persons trying to be good citizens in November visit Page One only to find that there are no informed choices to make in judicial elections -- all (or nearly all) are unopposed. If I keep repeating this, perhaps it will eventually sink in: In Cook County, if one is interested in judicial elections, one must vote in the Democratic Primary. That is not a partisan statement. It is a simple, inescapable fact.

But back to the topic at hand, namely, yesterday's suprising stat surge.

I've had page view surges at other times -- Russian, or at least East European, bots dumping all sorts of comment spam on various and sundry posts, usually old ones. One of the reasons I have comment moderation here and on Page One is to avoid becoming Cook County's leading source for information on fake Gucci handbags. (There are other reasons, of course.) Anyway, that hasn't happened for awhile... and it does not seem to have happened yesterday, either. No major influx of spam comments or anything. (And nearly all my traffic comes, as it should, from the good old USA... although Singapore is in a surprisingly strong second place at the moment. Are there a lot of persons interested in the Cook County judiciary in Singapore?)

Usually, when traffic ticks up for no apparent reason (no apparent reason to me), it is because a number of my readers believe (and a few of them may already know) that something has happened that I'm supposed to be reporting on and they're clicking back regularly to see when I finally figure it out....

A newly-minted judge I know told me how disappointed she was to find out that a lot of her new colleagues were incorrigible gossips. I told her this this was the secret to whatever limited success I have here. Modern judges can not really 'hang out' with the people with whom they would ordinarily have the most in common, namely, the lawyers who routinely appear before them. (In Lincoln's day, of course, they rode circuit together, eating, drinking, and boarding together. Sometimes they took turns being judge. But that was long before Greylord.) So judges often have only each other to talk to. And not all are equally interested in the latest permutations of the Star Trek universe, or on the latest cuts to the Bears' roster. So they talk about lawyers, and who wants to join them on the bench. Not being an incorrigible gossip, I won't name the reviewing court judge who once claimed that she (or he -- I'm not giving any clues here) clicked on Page One 50 times some days, waiting for my next update.

But this sort of repeat checking-in behavior only explains a jump to 2,000 page views a day on non-peak days when I might ordinarily only get 1,000 page views. It does not explain 11,724 page views on Tuesday. Maybe I'm missing something really big.

Even if I fail to figure it out the reason right away, yesterday's numbers nudged me unexpectedly further down the road to 5,000,000 Page One page views....

New subcircuit maps - Part 2 - Subcircuits 6-10

Updated August 18, 2023 to reflect inclusion of 6th Subcircuit map.

Continuing a look at the newly redrawn Cook County judicial subcircuits that began with this post on Page One.

Here is the map of the City-only 6th Subcircuit:

This is a map of the City portion of the new 7th Subcircuit:

This is a map of the County portion:

This is a map of the new, City-only 8th Subcircuit:

Here is the City portion of the new 9th Subcircuit:

This is the County portion of the 9th:

And, finally, for this post, here is the City portion of the new 10th Subcircuit:

This is the County portion:

For a look at the maps for Subcircuits 11-15, click here or just scroll down.

For a look at the maps for the new Subcircuits, Nos. 16-20, click here.

For a look at the new maps for Subcircuits 1-5, click here.

New subcircuit maps - Part 3 - Subcircuits 11-15

Continuing a look at the new Subcircuit maps that began with this post on Page One.

This is a map showing the City's portion of the new 11th Subcircuit:

This is a map showing the County portion of the 11th Subcircuit:

Just like its predecessor, the new 12th Subcircuit is entirely outside the City of Chicago:

The new 13th Subcircuit is also outside the City:

The new 14th Subcircuit, however, like the old 14th Subcircuit, is located entirely within the City limits:

Finally, for this post, here is the map of the new, all-suburban 15th Subcircuit:

For a look at the maps of the newly created Subcircuits, Nos. 16-20, click here or just scroll down.

For a look at the maps for Subcircuits 6-10, click here or just scroll up

And for a look at the maps showing the boundaries for new Subcircuits 1-5, click here. Yes, I know there's a link at the top of this post, but I've saved you the trouble of scrolling back now, haven't I?

New subcircuit maps - Part 4 - Subcircuits 16-20

This post concludes our look at the maps of the newly drawn Cook County Judicial Subcircuits, a look that began with this Page One post.

Here is a map of the City portion of the brand new 16th Subcircuit:

This is the suburban portion of the 16th Subcircuit:

Here is the map of the City portion of the new 17th Subcircuit:

And the suburban portion of the 17th:

The new 18th Subcircuit lies wholly outside the City:

The boundaries of the City portion of the 19th Subcircuit and those of the 19th Ward may not be exactly contiguous, but there is obvious overlap:

But there is an extensive suburban component to the 19th Subcircuit as well:

And, finally, here is the new, City-only 20th Subcircuit:

If you came to this post looking for maps for Subcircuits 6-10, click here. If you seek maps of Subcircuits 11-15, click here instead. For the new maps for Subcircuits 1-5, click here.