A Surge of "Surges"

Inflation up, or as the NYT puts it "Consumer Prices Surge 1.1% in June." This leads me to once again wonder whether we haven't been seeing a surge of "surges" ever since Bush announce the surge back in early 2007. My sense is that people didn't used to use that word very much, but now it's everywhere.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/07/a-surge-of-surges/49310/