Still high up there
Burningbird comments in her usual smart and interesting way on the Google demotion of webloggers in the rankings. God knows how they're doing it.
I will note, however, that the site you're reading now is still the #1 hit for the search "snappy clam." Ha.
On the other hand, I kinda doubt I'm even in the first 1000 pages for "John." Just browsing the first few pages of results would seem to bear that out.