Our Long National Photoshop Nightmare Is Over

September 11, 2011 3:56 AM

Ten years later, one of the greatest mysteries arising from 9/11 has been solved: the guy who faked the 'tourist guy atop the WTC while the plane approaches' picture has come forward.
posted by oneswellfoop (72 comments total)

The Museum of Hoaxes have a nice retrospective on Tourist Guy, including photos of him at the Hindenburg explosion and other famous disasters.
posted by fairmettle at 4:04 AM on September 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

That's it! INVADE HUNGARY!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:05 AM on September 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

INVADE BÖING 757
posted by vanar sena at 4:10 AM on September 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Spoiler: A random narcissistic fool did it to get attention.
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:16 AM on September 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

According to Snopes, it was known in late 2001 that "a Hungarian man named Peter" was behind the hoax. Although this is the first time I recall seeing his last name.
posted by TedW at 4:18 AM on September 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

A testament to how ibiquitous Photoshop has become in the last 10 years. This picture would get passed around twice today before someone proved it to be a fake.

Ah, innocence lost.
posted by litnerd at 4:25 AM on September 11, 2011

"I didn't really stop to consider the consequences and never thought it would go outside of my small circle of friends."

The Internet is omniscient and unforgiving.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:31 AM on September 11, 2011

I never held it against him, his image becoming a riff in disaster photos provided some much needed levity at the time. Gallows humor is a powerful coping mechanism.
posted by Scoo at 4:32 AM on September 11, 2011 [44 favorites]

Beat me to it, TedW. Yep, snopes nailed this down almost immediately.
posted by ShutterBun at 4:33 AM on September 11, 2011

Kirth Gerson: "The Internet is omniscient and unforgiving."

Reminds me of this comment by koeselitz.
posted by vanar sena at 4:38 AM on September 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

Mr Guzli added: "I would like it to end now, I want people to know I am sorry and I hope that will be the end of Tourist Guy."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Yeah, never going to happen.
posted by Pendragon at 4:42 AM on September 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is just perfect. In the U.S. today it's all 9-11 24/7. You can't watch TV, read a newspaper, or a magazine, or even the damn comic strips without being forced to live through a horrible day that happened ten years ago.

I need some way to ground that experience on something I can relate to. The idea that somebody made a dumb joke out of it is extremely comforting. I'd like to believe that when the asteroid hits, or when Christ returns, or when the last breath leaves the last human on this planet, that last person will say something funny. The situation is too insane not to say something funny.

Humor is the opposite of terrorism. No one who can laugh at himself can ever take himself seriously enough to kill many people. I salute you, tasteless prankster, because you are wise enough not to take any of this seriously.
posted by twoleftfeet at 4:42 AM on September 11, 2011 [72 favorites]

Mr Guzli added: "I would like it to end now, I want people to know I am sorry and I hope that will be the end of Tourist Guy."

...he really doesn't understand the internet, does he?
posted by Dysk at 4:42 AM on September 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

His story was told in Wired in November 2001...
posted by sycophant at 4:59 AM on September 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Mr Guzli says: "It was a private matter - I assumed my friends would recognise me and call me to see if I was alright, but they didn't, they posted it on to other friends and suddenly it was all over the world."

So instead of calling their friend to find out what the hell was going on they just posted it all over the web? I had to laugh, even if it's a bit sad. Bit of a jerk for doing it in the first place though.
posted by Talanvor at 5:00 AM on September 11, 2011

twoleftfeet: "In the U.S. today it's all 9-11 24/7"

Except for the Scott Peterson story and other gems on stations like Universal HD. Hard to find, but worth it to get away from the 9/11 deluge.

Schlock Schedule
posted by lampshade at 5:11 AM on September 11, 2011

He appeared on Brazilian chatshows, gave interviews to local newspapers, handed out autographs to fans and was even, allegedly, contacted by Volkswagen, who wanted him to feature in a TV commercial.

From the Guardian in November 2001.

What the hell, VW?
posted by tapeguy at 5:23 AM on September 11, 2011

For the benefit of people outside the U.S., all of our major cable news networks, all of our print media, most of our radio stations... are doing 9-11 tributes today. I've never seen anything like this. Granted, it was a horrible thing. Granted, we should be respectful of those that died and the many heroes. But we're being completely saturated here. It's quite unusual to have such a high percentage of the media distribution in the U.S. devoted to something that happened a decade ago. Quite unusual.
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:25 AM on September 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

What would make this story perfect is for the goatsex guy and the tubgirl lady (I presume they are male and female) to come clean!

(Also I am mildly curious who was the guy with the sign that said "get a brain moranz".)
posted by bukvich at 5:39 AM on September 11, 2011

The goatse guy has been identified for a while. (SFW, Know Your Meme)
posted by filthy light thief at 6:05 AM on September 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

And Mr. Morans was also identified.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:08 AM on September 11, 2011 [7 favorites]

"I am ashamed that even now the police still get calls about it, I never did it for money and I never intended to cause any harm to the real victims or their families. "I did it because I'm an asshole."

"I didn't really stop to consider the consequences and never thought it would go outside of my small circle of friends." "I mean, this internet thing will never take off to billions of people."
posted by stormpooper at 6:08 AM on September 11, 2011

In summary: on the internet, most people might not know you're a dog, but someone can probably identify you, and then the fact you're a dog is just a Google search away.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:10 AM on September 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

And Mr. Morans was also identified.

The guy won't talk about the picture with the reporter, because he says he wants to sue everyone. And and he's using it as his twitter icon.
posted by delmoi at 6:12 AM on September 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

It's quite unusual to have such a high percentage of the media distribution in the U.S. devoted to something that happened a decade ago. Quite unusual.

I wonder if the 10 year anniversary of the JFK assassination got anything like this kind of saturation coverage?
posted by Forktine at 6:13 AM on September 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't think the JFK assassination got the same level of coverage ten years later. Or the moon landing. Or anything else in the last 100+ years of journalism. It's hard to measure, but I'm guessing this level of coverage is a "unique event".

There's a deeper level of catharsis here, I think.
posted by twoleftfeet at 6:28 AM on September 11, 2011

For the benefit of people outside the U.S., all of our major cable news networks, all of our print media, most of our radio stations... are doing 9-11 tributes today.
It is obviously nothing compared to the coverage in the US, but I find that in the Netherlands there is quite a lot of media coverage as well, for an event that happened 10 years ago in another country. See the front page of Trouw (screenshot) for example (this is one of the better Dutch newspapers). Normally an event only gets this much coverage if it is breaking news.
posted by davar at 6:52 AM on September 11, 2011

I wasn't a seasoned viewer of tv in 1973 when the tenth anniversary of the Kennedy assassination rolled around, being in kindergarten and all, but my parents tell me there was a short retrospective on the six o'clock and eleven o'clock news: a reporter doing a stand-up piece from Arlington by the flame, some b-roll looking around Dealey Plaza while a voiceover talked about the effects of the killing, twenty frames of JFK waving as seen by Zapruder, mentions of where Jackie and the
kids attended a memorial service
today, and now turning to local
news...

It seems to me there was an Onion piece this last week about CNN's plans for today: y'know, somebody goes down to the WTC site and tapes a two-minute piece and that's it because what else is there to say?

If only.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:55 AM on September 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Related: Remembering 9/11 in animated GIFs from the nice folks at Regretsy.

They're much kinder than 4chan, though that's not saying much.
posted by joshwa at 7:20 AM on September 11, 2011

Wired had this back in November 2001
posted by warbaby at 7:21 AM on September 11, 2011

And I missed sycophant's link upthread. I'm going back to bed now.
posted by warbaby at 7:33 AM on September 11, 2011

Thanks for the FPP, onefellswoop. This has been the one bit of absurdity I needed on such a bleak day.
posted by hellojed at 7:48 AM on September 11, 2011

There's a deeper level of catharsis here, I think.

That, or a deeper level of exploitation.
posted by milarepa at 8:08 AM on September 11, 2011 [6 favorites]

I have decided to ignore the REAL reason we focus on the 10th anniversary date of September 11th, and am instead choosing to pretend all the hubbub is because it's my 10th anniversary of signing up here at Metafilter.

Yay for me!
posted by Windigo at 8:23 AM on September 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

For the benefit of people outside the U.S., all of our major cable news networks, all of our print media, most of our radio stations... are doing 9-11 tributes today. I've never seen anything like this. Granted, it was a horrible thing. Granted, we should be respectful of those that died and the many heroes. But we're being completely saturated here. It's quite unusual to have such a high percentage of the media distribution in the U.S. devoted to something that happened a decade ago. Quite unusual.

I have to say that I'm a bit icked out, though not entirely surprised, by the way at least 3/4 of my RSS reader and facebook feed are all about it. I don't know. I really don't care what my favorite fashion blogger or that kid used to go to the diner with in college were doing that day ten years ago.

I understand the need to both memorialize and be a part of something, but it feels . . . I don't know. Weird.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:25 AM on September 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Oh, but I did enjoy this post, actually. Interesting to hear the source of that bleak bit of internet history.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:26 AM on September 11, 2011

The oversaturation will all be worth it when we see Obama, on the stage at Ground Zero, pull OBL's head out of a burlap sack and hold it up high, and then look up towards the heavens, his face contorted as he lets out a pained, complicated cry, half-howl, half-shriek. It is the iconic image that will come to define his presidency.
posted by Flashman at 8:55 AM on September 11, 2011 [17 favorites]

"I need some way to ground that experience on something I can relate to. The idea that somebody made a dumb joke out of it is extremely comforting. I'd like to believe that when the asteroid hits, or when Christ returns, or when the last breath leaves the last human on this planet, that last person will say something funny. The situation is too insane not to say something funny."

Check out today's Doonesbury.

Nails it.
posted by Mike D at 8:56 AM on September 11, 2011 [7 favorites]

but it feels . . . I don't know. Weird.

Agreed. It feels so forced to me, like those nauseating, emotionally manipulative Thai life insurance commercials. It was a terrible, sad thing that happened in our country, but not nearly as terrible and sad as the following ten years have been.

We need a telescreen with a picture of the twin towers on it for our Two Minutes of Sad.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:56 AM on September 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

> Check out today's Doonesbury.

I didn't recognize B.D. with gray hair. wooooooah.
posted by bukvich at 9:03 AM on September 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Love how B.D. is the voice of reason. Love it.
(didn't he get shot up in Iraq and this changed his bellicose nature? don't remember)
posted by angrycat at 9:16 AM on September 11, 2011

My take on the 9/11 coverage is probably completely removed from what I would've said about such a thing several years ago, when I would've thought it was good and important to remember.

But now I say - Saturation? More like wallowing. More like don't want to try to move on. More like we have nothing positive to look forward to or aspire to. So let's sit around in an endless cycle of indulging in death porn.

The last decade has not been great for me - financially horrible years during which I have lost several close to me including my father and had to put my mother in a nursing home. Etc.

So I've had to fight my own personal depressing demons. In the meantime I saw this country go crazy, snookered into supporting a costly unnecessary war and bloated security apparatus. And I've seen the hatefulness of everything not whitebread America that has underlined the Republican party for several decades become so mainstream that a major "news" network and assorted batshit insane politicians have thrived off it.

This is what we need to reflect on more - not the dreadful acts of a few psychotic foreigners, but on how we reacted.

From what I understand there is a beautiful fountain and tree memorial at Ground Zero. Sounds tasteful and quite lovely. But they've finally got the new building going up too. So, you've got it right New York City. We need soothing, calm reflection. And then we need New Building.

And yes, I realize I'm talking about myself metaphorically here as well.
posted by NorthernLite at 9:25 AM on September 11, 2011 [22 favorites]

The wallowing is what fed this country's war fever and allowed our hallowed leaders to throw us all off the metaphorical cliff. Wallow away. I'm waiting for Colin Powell to go back to the UN and explain himself.
posted by warbaby at 9:37 AM on September 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

(didn't he get shot up in Iraq and this changed his bellicose nature? don't remember)

B.D.'s Iraq experience got me back into Doonesbury. He suffered serious PTSD after ordering the driver of his Humvee to floor it while taking heavy fire, even though this meant running down a crowd of women and children, then got a leg blown off by a IED. His physical and mental recovery was one of the best war comics in ages.
posted by Scoo at 10:11 AM on September 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

As to this saturation thing that's occurring today, this must be mainly grounded in TV or something. I am the furthest thing from the "I don't even own a TV guy" (I love my giant flatscreen <3 ) but me and me lady decided long ago that cable was too lame to keep around.
So we either Netflix or download the shows we wanna watch.
The point I'm making is that sure I've seen more stories online and stuff this week but in general I don't feel that overwhelmed by 9/11/24/7 hullabaloo.
Must be a tv thing.
Y'all should just watch a movie or go outside or something.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 10:12 AM on September 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Let’s Cancel 9/11
Bury the War State's Blank Check at Sea
By Tom Engelhardt
Let’s bag it.
I’m talking about the tenth anniversary ceremonies for 9/11, and everything that goes with them: the solemn reading of the names of the dead, the tolling of bells, the honoring of first responders, the gathering of presidents, the dedication of the new memorial, the moments of silence. The works.
Let’s just can it all. Shut down Ground Zero. Lock out the tourists. Close “Reflecting Absence,” the memorial built in the “footprints” of the former towers with its grove of trees, giant pools, and multiple waterfalls before it can be unveiled this Sunday. Discontinue work on the underground National September 11 Museum due to open in 2012. Tear down the Freedom Tower (redubbed 1 World Trade Center after our “freedom” wars went awry), 102 stories of “the most expensive skyscraper ever constructed in the United States.” (Estimated price tag: $3.3 billion.) Eliminate that still-being-constructed, hubris-filled 1,776 feet of building, planned in the heyday of George W. Bush and soaring into the Manhattan sky like a nyaah-nyaah invitation to future terrorists. Dismantle the other three office towers being built there as part of an $11 billion government-sponsored construction program. Let’s get rid of it all. If we had wanted a memorial to 9/11, it would have been more appropriate to leave one of the giant shards of broken tower there untouched.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175437/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_tear_down_the_freedom_tower/
posted by robbyrobs at 11:08 AM on September 11, 2011

Well, nine years and ten months ago, all we knew about this guy was that he was a 25-year-old Hungarian named Peter who had faked the pictures as a Photoshop prank which spread more widely than he had imagined it would. Today we can fill in all the blanks: his name is Peter Guzli. Ah, so this is closure.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:15 AM on September 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm waiting for Colin Powell to go back to the UN and explain himself.

mai lai baby, mai lai
posted by clavdivs at 11:40 AM on September 11, 2011

The goatse guy has been identified for a while. (SFW, Know Your Meme)

And he continues to inspire the leaders of tomorrow.
posted by homunculus at 11:59 AM on September 11, 2011

A testament to how ibiquitous Photoshop has become in the last 10 years. This picture would get passed around twice today before someone proved it to be a fake.

Ah, innocence lost.
posted by litnerd at 4:25 AM on September 11 [+] [!]

Really? I recall people quite clearly pointing at all the pixels and relating the various shops that they have seen photo'd previously, as soon as this pic came out. It's not like Adobe was some no-name company ten years ago, and their products were BBS shareware until they broke big in 2007 or something...
posted by FatherDagon at 12:03 PM on September 11, 2011

My apologies for mis-framing the story - it appears the prankster was identified long ago, but just gave a formal explanation/apology for the prank last week (I COULD blame my own source, but usually I google for confirmation and didn't this time). I posted this because I felt the way that twoleftfeet explained (more eloquently than I could) and just wanted some semi-comic relief. I'm actually relieved that I haven't been inundated with criticism for inappropriateness (although I did tone down the snark before hitting POST).

Have a GOOD day, MetaFilter. I'll be back in a day or two with a post about a less-world-shattering occasion (if nobody beats me to it) (/tease)
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:23 PM on September 11, 2011

I woke up this morning and started reading the 9/11 Encyclopedia thread from a few days ago. I got more upset than I would have expected. I stopped reading it, and I decided to spend this day doing something enjoyable. I'm making a lemon tart, and then I'm going to watch Doctor Who. I got dressed, I drove to the store, and then I found myself struggling to keep back the tears as I got the supplies for my tart.

I didn't expect that. I don't know how to interpret that.

The last ten years have been shit. I can't separate out my memory of that day from my memory of all the shit that's happened since. I can't help but mourn everything that's happened.

I feel silly for being so affected. I'm not the kind of person to post "Never forget!" flags on my Facebook feed, and no one I know was a victim on 9/11. But, still, I'm crying a little.

My tart will be tasty. I've never made a lemon tart before, but I have high hopes.
posted by meese at 1:47 PM on September 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Sorry, I meant that post to be a response to this:

I have to say that I'm a bit icked out, though not entirely surprised, by the way at least 3/4 of my RSS reader and facebook feed are all about it. I don't know. I really don't care what my favorite fashion blogger or that kid used to go to the diner with in college were doing that day ten years ago.

Kind of an attempt to explain why everyone's so caught up on it. I expect most people are just like me, a little distressed and a little shocked by how much they're still affected by 9/11, and confused about what to do with all that emotion.
posted by meese at 1:53 PM on September 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

You might just end up baking a cake decorated like the American flag.
posted by Flashman at 2:22 PM on September 11, 2011

9/11 was a horrendous psychic trauma that was intentionally amplified and manipulated by 1) cable news morons and 2) our fearless leaders. It was an intentionally inflicted public mental health disaster or as Wilhelm Reich put it "psychic plague."
posted by warbaby at 2:24 PM on September 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

In the over-saturated US TV coverage today (before I turned it off), I kept hearing references to 9/11 being an equivalent historical event to Pearl Harbor. Fair enough. There are a few differences, but as a general proposition, that's probably a fair comparison. But 10 years after Pearl Harbor, we already had 6 years of peace-time. 10 years after 9/11, we might finally be able to keep our shoes on in the airport.
posted by webhund at 2:38 PM on September 11, 2011

Yes, but ten years after Pear Harbor we didn't have coast to coast twenty four seven television.

Plus, we had decisively won that war. By it's very nature we will never be able to say that we have on a given date decisively won this ongoing - thing. Maybe pulling out of Afghanistan and Iraq, but even that will be a little less than definitive, at least emotionally.

I'm guessing/hoping that the conjunction of ten years after with the opening of the memorial will be the high tide of mass catharsis/wallowing (according to your POV) and we can, those without genuine connection to the event (and I would include anyone who served in the military actions following the attacks in that number) will get on with life.

(Didn't realize the Journal of Commerce was still in business. Good to know.)
posted by IndigoJones at 3:16 PM on September 11, 2011

And Mr. Morans was also identified.

Wow:

That team had David Eckstein, Yadier Molina, So Taguchi, and Aaron Miles. That's a Jew [sic], a Mexican [sic], a Chinaman [sic], and a regular American. It was a variable [sic] "League of Nations" of doing the little things.

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:52 PM on September 11, 2011

For me, the major emotion attached to 9/11 is embarrassment. I'm embarrassed by the incompetence of our security services that got us hit by a such a small group of ass-hats, embarrassed by the politicians who so shamelessly manipulated the event to further their own agendas, embarrassed by the completely asymmetrical and illogical response to 9/11 we continue to make (a handful of Saudi Arabian guys hit us, we move full armies permanently into two other countries, neither of which are Saudi Arabia, harass/beat up/torture/murder people at random for mostly just being brown-skinned and/or for praying to someone other than Jesus, and flush the concept of liberty right down the toilet as if we never really liked it anyway), and I'm embarrassed by how the greater public still has no idea how or why it happened and continues to passionately regurgitate the dim-witted narratives ("They hate our freedoms!") that were woven from whole-cloth by our obviously untrustworthy public officials.

This guy, Peter Guzli, I like. That was clever.
posted by fartknocker at 3:53 PM on September 11, 2011 [11 favorites]

http://i.imgur.com/YmZ2d.jpg
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 4:13 PM on September 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wow:
That team had David Eckstein, Yadier Molina, So Taguchi, and Aaron Miles. That's a Jew [sic], a Mexican [sic], a Chinaman [sic], and a regular American. It was a variable [sic] "League of Nations" of doing the little things.
Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.


I saw that too, and what got me was that he had actually heard of the League of Nations. Perhaps he conflated the Justice League and the United Nations?
posted by TedW at 6:39 PM on September 11, 2011

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.

the fact that his price for the interview was two KFC _(in)Famous Bowls™ was icing on the cake.
posted by Challahtronix at 8:01 PM on September 11, 2011

I never held it against him, his image becoming a riff in disaster photos provided some much needed levity at the time. Gallows humor is a powerful coping mechanism.


Nyan Eleven
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 8:53 PM on September 11, 2011

I never realized that Mr Morans was employed making HFCS. That explains so many things.
posted by Purposeful Grimace at 3:05 AM on September 12, 2011

This FPP is making me nostalgic, as I remember this photo being revealed as a hoax virtually the day after Sept 11 ten years ago too!
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 6:03 AM on September 12, 2011

I'm curious as to the forces that make people feel deluged with 9/11 stuff. I'm talking about the people who felt it was too upsetting or over-the-top. I realize it was on every TV show, all over the Internet and in newspapers, but ... and I worry that this seems like a stupid or condescending question ... why couldn't you escape all that by simply not reading the paper and not watching TV?

I am a New Yorker and I was pretty traumatized by 9/11. I used to work in the Towers, my wife was on the subway, directly under them, when they got hit, and I wasn't able to reach her by phone for hours. I was sure she was dead. I still have nightmares sometimes.

But my Sunday was stress free. I got up in the morning, turned on the TV, got a glimpse of the content and realized what the media would be like all day. So I turned off the set. I then pretty much forgot about 9/11. Way later, my mom IMed me, asking me if I was okay, and it took me a moment to realized what she was talking about. I responded, telling her it felt like any other day to me.

I spent the day reading and catching up on some stuff for work I needed to get done. My wife and I went out to eat. We came home, watched a movie and then watched "Breaking Bad." Then we went to bed.

Again, I am concerned that this comes off as condescending: "It didn't affect ME. Why are YOU so susceptible?" But I'm honestly trying to understand something that's a bit alien to me. Why do so many people here feel like they were beaten over the head and couldn't escape?

Is it that you felt a duty to watch, even if you didn't like it? Is it that friends and family members kept bringing it up and you didn't feel it was polite to ask them to stop? Is it that you are just used to having media on all the time and it's odd (or uncomfortable) to unplug?
posted by grumblebee at 7:32 AM on September 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

"I was shocked, then I laughed, then I judged."
- The Internet
posted by hellbient at 7:52 AM on September 12, 2011 [3 favorites]

The thing nobody pointed out at the time was the WTC Observation Deck wouldn't have been open yet, that early in the morning.
posted by Rash at 9:01 AM on September 12, 2011

I saw that too, and what got me was that he had actually heard of the League of Nations. Perhaps he conflated the Justice League and the United Nations?

That was one of the fairly clear signs that the guy running the twitter account is actually doing a parody of Morans Guy rather than actually being Morans Guy.
posted by burnmp3s at 10:39 AM on September 12, 2011

The thing nobody pointed out at the time was the WTC Observation Deck wouldn't have been open yet, that early in the morning.

It's possible my memory is failing me, but I seem to recall this being pointed out pretty quickly as part of the debunking of the photo at the time.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:50 AM on September 12, 2011

Military Jets Escorted Flights on 9/11 Because People Were Pooping Too Much
posted by homunculus at 11:16 AM on September 12, 2011

I took small part in the deluge. 9/11 was a completely surreal day for me, one I hope to never witness the like of again. Every year on 11 September I remember for a minute, then I move on. Yesterday I knew it was going to be all 9/11, all the time; I actually watched a bit. And yes, I wrote about it too. It was 10 years ago; I guess at the age of 41, there aren't too many big moments I can look at and say "OMG, that happened 10 years ago!" This was one of them.

I watched yesterday not because I felt inundated, but because I look at where I was 10 years ago and how different it is from where I am now. It's such a pin on the timeline, and I felt a sense of companionship knowing a lot of other people were thinking about the same thing. I remember how I felt that day, and felt the need to revisit it a little bit. We've forgotten the sense of "we're all in this together" so many of us felt that day, and I guess I wanted to be reminded of that. I also wanted to get the big anniversary out of the way and move on, which is just what I did.

The wonderful thing about the television is the power button. It gives you so much choice. Just be glad it's not Orwell's telescreen.
posted by jennaratrix at 1:14 PM on September 12, 2011