Some random guy sent me email yesterday, with Subject: "is this you??"
and nothing in the message except for an image attachment called
shitmypantswtc.jpg, that I copied here:

   http://impressive.net/people/gerald/2001/10/11/wtc.html

which is an altered version of one of the pictures on my web site, of
Hugo on the 107th floor of one of the ex- world trade center towers:

   http://impressive.net/people/gerald/1999/09/nyc/r1-e14.jpg

How weird is that? Some people have too much time on their hands...

Since the attack on the WTC last month, several thousand people
have visited the page on my site that contains those images [1]
after discovering the page via google searches, and a number of
them sent me email about it, saying things like "don't you feel
strange having been there", and "hope you're okay"; again, really
weird things to be receiving from total strangers.

The altered version of Hugo in the WTC is a variant of another
meme that has been going around, that I first remember seeing in
the form of this photo:

   http://www.scripting.com/images/2001/10/04/schmuckWtc.jpg

which was reported at the time as being a photo recovered from a
camera found in the rubble at the WTC site, supposedly taken just
seconds before one of the planes hit the towers. It was quickly
confirmed to be a hoax, of course. [2]

Anyway, that image got a fair bit of publicity, and I guess a
bunch of other people with too much time on their hands got
inspired and produced a bunch of similar images, some of them
quite good/funny:

   http://www.scripting.com/images/2001/10/04/schmuckHindenberg.jpg
   http://www.scripting.com/images/2001/10/04/schmuckGodzilla.jpg
   http://www.scripting.com/images/2001/10/04/schmuckAndGoon.gif
   http://www.scripting.com/images/2001/10/04/scmuckMountain.jpg
   http://www.scripting.com/images/2001/10/04/schmuckSupersonic.jpg
   http://www.scripting.com/images/2001/10/04/schmuckDrivingBus.jpg
   http://www.scripting.com/images/2001/10/04/schmuckDallas.jpg
   http://wsphotofews.excite.com/031/eW/jf/Br/Kt53286.jpg

(more: http://forums.off-topic.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=108074 )

It's probably just a matter of dumb luck that it ended up being
some other dude in all those images and not me or Hugo...

oh... and this "Bert/Bin Laden" thing that was in the news today
seems related somehow:

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011011/od/binladen_dc_2.html

> Sesame Street's Bert Joins Bin Laden on Placards
>
> By Bernhard Warner
>
> LONDON (Reuters) - A satirical image of beloved children's television
> icon, Bert, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the world's most wanted
> man, Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), has made a bizarre
> appearance at Muslim rallies in Asia.
>
> The image of the unlikely duo -- the ``Sesame Street'' character and
> the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 hijack attacks in the
> United States -- has been splashed across spoof Internet sites over
> the past month.
>
> Mysteriously, the image made the jump from the virtual world to the
> real one, appearing on bin Laden placards at anti-American Muslim
> rallies in Bangladesh over the past week.
>
> The posters, which show a tiny Bert tucked between two images of bin
> Laden, were clutched by seemingly unsuspecting demonstrators at
> rallies on October 5 and 9.
>
> The banana-shaped Muppet is easy to miss at first glance.
>
> Photos of the protest placards have been posted on scores of humor and
> news Websites after circulating around the globe via e-mail.
>
> Astonished Internet users first noticed the appearance of Bert on
> Wednesday morning. By Thursday, it had become a raging debate on the
> Internet.
>
> ``Bert working with bin Laden?'' reads a headline on Swedish Website
> www.lindqvist.com. A debate follows on the site as conspiracy
> theorists try to figure out the mystery of how the spoof photo made it
> onto the streets of Bangladesh.
>
> Sesame Workshop, the non-profit company based in New York that
> oversees licensing of ``Sesame Street'' products, said in a statement
> it was exploring all legal options to stop unauthorized use of its
> property.
>
> ``We're outraged that our characters would be used in this unfortunate
> and distasteful manner. This is not at all humorous,'' a spokesman
> said.
>
> ``HONESTLY FREAKED OUT!''
>
> Part of the mystery can be traced to California.
>
> A San Francisco artist, Dino Ignacio, in 1998 started a conspiratorial
> spoof site called ``Bert is Evil,'' in which Bert is inserted into
> famous historical photos.
>
> He has appeared alongside Adolph Hitler and among a crowd in Dallas as
> John F. Kennedy's motorcade passes.
>
> Ignacio put a statement on his site, www.fractalcow.com, on
> Wednesday denying he was the creator of the Bert and bin Laden image.
>
> ``I just wanted to say I had nothing do to with this!'' the statement
> reads. ``This image has been e-mailed to me countless times since
> September 11. Yesterday a lot of you alerted me to a picture of a
> Taliban propaganda poster with Bert!''
>
> ``Reality is imitating the Web!'' the statement continues. ``I am
> honestly freaked out!''
>
> The Bert-bin Laden poster contains a montage of bin Laden photos. One
> shows him holding a microphone and another wearing military fatigues
> sitting beside a propped-up Kalashnikov rifle.
>
> Bert, wearing a menacing open-mouthed expression, appears between two
> of the images.
>
> The posters were photographed by news organizations including Reuters,
> and distributed to newspapers and news sites around the world.

[1] http://impressive.net/people/gerald/1999/09/nyc/
[2] http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/crash.htm

--
Gerald Oskoboiny <gerald@impressive.net>
http://impressive.net/people/gerald/