Google Book Gizmo: Who's Been Mentioned More In Books, Dallas Or Houston?

So many phrases to compare

​Google has a new gizmo that lets you compare how often two words have shown up among the 500 billion words contained in its database of centuries of books.

Like, say, how often "Rolling Stones" are mentioned, as opposed to "Beatles." Or, say, "fisting" vs. "kissing."

The charts track usage through the years, so "Beatles," say, gets nary a mention from 1800 on (except for some weird blip around 1900) until 1960, when the line rockets off the chart.

So.....What about comparing Houston and Dallas?

​We cropped out the very early, meaningless years, but the result is obvious: HOUSTON KICKS ASS.

In the category of "books," of course. If "cheesy television series" had been a category, we're sure Dallas would have done very well.

And if any Dallasites moan about how the search results include hits for Sam Houston, they should know that the results likewise would include any mentions of George Mifflin Dallas, our 11th vice president.