...As to the first question, no comment
, just kidding, NO, you are NOT crazy
... (well, you MIGHT be, but probalby not).
It seems that when a topic doesn't get discussed for a while, it's starts going cold and dropping on down the list, and anytime somebody responds to any subject, wherever it was on the list, it "heats it back up," so that it rises to the top of the list.
That's what it looks like to me...and, by the way, I might be crazy too, still crazy after all these years