When I first spotted, earlier this evening, that one of my posts had hit over 6000 page loads today, I assumed I was reading it incorrectly, or that it was some some kind of error - but no. A few checks confirmed that similar figures were shown from three difference sources - and identified the source. Since then, the total has continued to grow, and has just passed the 10 000 mark, with two hours yet to go before midnight. (Average daily readership for this site, which I have been rather neglecting, is only about 50 at present. So what gives?

Sadly, this readerships surge did not come here at QTC, but at a satellite site, “Queers in History“. Unusually, most of these page loads were concentrated in Spain (usually, the majority of my readers are in the US). My Blogger stats page also shows that most were following links from a Spanish post agglomerating site, menéame, and specifically, this translation of my post: Papas gays: La embarazosa muerte de Pablo II.(Original post - The Embarrassing Death of Pope Paul II)

This post has been up for over eighteen months. Why has it suddenly caught fire? Consider this: It’s appeared in a Spanish version, at a time that Pope Benedict has been in Madrid. Thank you, Papa.