Top of the world

October 10, 2001 8:40 PM

Top of the world - A lost view. (sorry, if this is a double post, but I haven't find anything via mefi-search)
posted by ronsens (21 comments total)

I am surprised that no one has altered or taken down this site. It is a bit of a grim reminder.

How long until this photo to show up doctored with a plane:




Whistling past the graveyard...
posted by phatboy at 8:49 PM on October 10, 2001

An aside, of sorts: has anyone noticed the unofficial game going on at filepile to photoshop the now-infamous "WTC guy" into various disaster/ exotic location photos? And related to that: when do we get the human interest article by a journalist intrepid enough to figure out just who the WTC guy is in that original doctored photo, where he's from, and if he knows how much his likeness has circulated from between a woman's cleavage to the middle of a volcano?
posted by hincandenza at 9:08 PM on October 10, 2001

Grim reminder? I'd say happy memory. The World Trade Center observatory was awesome.

Ah, now you got me depressed. If only we could go back to Sept 10th.
posted by QrysDonnell at 9:11 PM on October 10, 2001

That reminds me.. A friend of mine said she got this picture forwarded to her. I couldn't find any reference to it or its validity, but it's scary nonetheless... :(
posted by valerie at 9:27 PM on October 10, 2001

Thats nothing.

This guy is the most unfortunate person in the world.
posted by phatboy at 9:29 PM on October 10, 2001

Hinc, if "WTC guy" is that pudgy dust-covered businessman with his jacket tucked under his arm, there was a front page story on him and life post-911 in either the Globe & Mail or the National Post (happy archive searching).
posted by sylloge at 9:30 PM on October 10, 2001

I remember my 10th birthday - my Aunt Pam flew me into New York for the weekend to hang with her. Can't tell you how much fun it was to fly as an 'unaccompanied child', all by myself, and the first time I'd ever flown at that. We saw a broadway show (Big River, with John Goodman as Pap Finn, pre-Roseanne), went to chinatown, ate at a couple cool restaurants, and went up to the observation deck at the WTC. After that, we went to Windows on the World, or whatever the restaurant up there was called. It was SO COOL.

Not really relevant to anything else, just a great memory that will now always dove-tail into my memories of 9/11. Anyone else have good memories or stories about the WTC?
posted by GriffX at 9:39 PM on October 10, 2001

I'm personally glad that this site wasn't taken down. I never made it to the WTC.

Another WTC Guy sighting...
posted by tpoh.org at 9:44 PM on October 10, 2001

(Purging myself with stripes for the self-link, but I wanted to share...)
posted by tpoh.org at 9:45 PM on October 10, 2001

NYT (reg req) has a collection of 360 degree scenes from before and after September 11.

None with the WTC guy.
posted by Geo at 9:52 PM on October 10, 2001

I actually have some pictures that I put up on um... the 12th or 13th or 'round that time. I mostly put them up for friends and family, but I think they're appropriate here. WTC Memories...
posted by QrysDonnell at 10:08 PM on October 10, 2001

The wedding photo is lovely. For their sake, I hope nobody photoshops the pic. May they love long and prosper.
posted by realjanetkagan at 10:56 PM on October 10, 2001

...And here's something else lovely. I'm glad they've kept these up because I never got to see these views in person.
posted by realjanetkagan at 11:33 PM on October 10, 2001

I'd bet money the guy in the first photo is the culprit. ...If that cutout of Tourist Guy he's got is in PhotoShop, I'd love a copy so I could play too.
posted by realjanetkagan at 1:23 AM on October 11, 2001

One more comment here: this is my favorite from that site- the fact that that photo is itself a famously doctored photo of Oswald- oh, the levels of i-ro-nee! Well, that one and the ones where he's present as someone's shadow, buried in the back of a crowd, or skillfully inserted so it's not immediately obviously, like the Iwo Jima one.
posted by hincandenza at 1:29 AM on October 11, 2001

I'd bet money the guy in the first photo is the culprit. ...If that cutout of Tourist Guy he's got is in PhotoShop, I'd love a copy so I could play too.

Actually, I'm relatively sure the tourist photoshopping started out as an idea ripped from the somethingawful.com forums. The first picture, with Fred Durst in place of Tourist Guy, was posted on the 26th of Sept.

As to who he is, touristofdeath.com claims the fellow's name is James, with some other identifying information also provided. I seem to remember the original source cited was snopes, but it's since been changed, and a cursory glance over both links on that site turns up nothing.
posted by digital_insomnia at 7:41 AM on October 11, 2001

Of course, I can also misunderstand the meaning of a message, and come up with a reply mostly unrelated to the comment posted. Serves me for posting before I've had my morning caffeine. ::goes back into hiding::
posted by digital_insomnia at 7:45 AM on October 11, 2001

An aside, of sorts: has anyone noticed the unofficial game going on at filepile to photoshop the now-infamous "WTC guy" into various disaster/ exotic location photos?

It's going on at FilePile, SomethingAwful, and where I first saw it, HardForum. I even participated a little. Tasteless? Yes. Funny? YES!

(To explain the filename...people on HardForum named the guy Waldo, 'cause he keeps showing up in odd places.)
posted by CrayDrygu at 1:16 PM on October 11, 2001

couldn't resist.

posted by quonsar at 8:42 PM on October 11, 2001