EZB8, House4Sex in Athens

June 2, 2003 10:44 PM

Sifting through the Archinect discussions, I came across EZB8, House4Sex. Some guy in Athens is supposedly offering free room & board to girls provided that they be "the landlord's lover for a night." Genius in every man's eyes dick.
posted by hobbes (16 comments total)

and i got married why?
posted by badzen at 10:48 PM on June 2, 2003

Isn't this illegal as it amounts to prostitution?
posted by Ryvar at 11:16 PM on June 2, 2003

Prostitution is illegal in Athens?

nahhhh

note: I do not endore nor have ever pondered going to a hooker, and am merely participating in the discussion. I also realize that a disclaimer like this makes it seem even more likely that i've done the dirty with a woman of the night, but take it as you will.
posted by phylum sinter at 11:28 PM on June 2, 2003

Would I have to be Greek to understand why their are hot sauce text ads in this thread?
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 1:18 AM on June 3, 2003

It's not about the girls. It's about the guys! The guys who have lost their power against women and have become wussies. GUYS, WAKE UP! Stop getting blind just by the thought of getting laid and claim your power back. If you're with a girl who bosses you around, stand up to her! She'll fucking love you for it! And if you are single, what the fuck are you doing buying girls chocolate and flowers? Go forth and become independent.

I'm glad I found the above, as it initially did look like it was about the girls!

"After all, it's that exact attitude that most Greek girls display when they feel like someone is taking control of a situation. They just say something so superior-sounding so as to make guys feel tiny, just because they want to have sex."

Oh, well. Motivations seems to run deep here.

....

In any event, there is plenty of women who travel the world this way, in a wide variety of circumstances . The question is not whether it is or not prostitution, but rather whether they give a shit about your opinion on their private (and at least sometimes extremely interesting) lifes.
posted by magullo at 2:45 AM on June 3, 2003

Funny, I seem to remember seeing a porn popup for a website that had a similar arrangement. That is, the guy claimed to live in Amsterdam, and he would house strange women provided they strip or have sex with him on video, which he then throws on his website. I always doubted the veracity, but now I'm not so sure...
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:11 AM on June 3, 2003

Irony #1: This probably actually works.

I met plenty of females back in my hostel days that basically picked up another traveler on the road somewhere when they ran out of money. It's hard to say who's using who in these situations, nothing is explicit, but the deal is pretty similar.

Irony #2: He asks for "attractive" but I don't notice any picture of himself on the site.

Girls, find a fun hostel. It'll be cheap and you can have or not have sex with whomever you wish.
posted by Leonard at 6:36 AM on June 3, 2003

A few things struck me odd with these pages. The house has a sign (possibly a "for sale" sign) outside the house. The sign is not in Greek (from what I can figure) - this would be very uncommon.
The house itself is seen in a flat background. Athens and the surrounding area are very mountainous. Conceivably the photo could be facing the sea, but even then the background seems too flat, especially since it is by the sea as can be seen from the above linked pictures.
Then the rooms seem to be set up, as if for a real-estate photo. The styles of the rooms are very dissimilar especially the right hand column photos (although the left column photos show spaces with similar floor tiling).

So I conclude that it is quite probable (though not certain) that:
a. The house isn't his
b. It isn't in Athens (it might be near Athens, although I'm not even 100% sure it's in Greece)
c. The photos aren't from a single house.

That said, a simple search for ezb8 leads one to this page, which associates the site url with the name of a post-graduate student in economics (last year anyway) at the University of Portsmouth's Business School. The site was set up for a course (?) entitled "Internet for Economists 2002". The name is Anastasis Gyzis (a Greek name sure enough)and as such he is not listed in the Athens area phone book, though that doesn't prove anything as the name Gyzis (the two possible names corresponding to the latin translitteration actually) exists, so he could be living at a house nominally (or actually) owned by a family member and/or his phone might be listed under a different name (very plausible). The fact that Mr. Gyzis worked, however, on a "Mortgage Market guide" as a project topic. makes me believe that he might have stacked quite a few photos of house exteriors and interiors.

Also: He claims to have "results". I am in the interesting position of having received portions of the email letters sent by a couple of guys posing as a Croatian and a Swedish woman and using photos from a "russian wives"- type board and the reply he sent them with his photo. If anyone's interested I could send them the messages with any required translations and the (really precious) photo of the guy.
posted by talos at 7:28 AM on June 3, 2003

Would I have to be Greek to understand why their are hot sauce text ads in this thread?

I get 4 different versions of the "Iraq Most Wanted Playing Cards".

Such an odd linkage... I didn't see the more obvious keywords anywhere.

Google is a strange and wonderful, yet mysterious, thing.
posted by Ynoxas at 7:40 AM on June 3, 2003

talos - Nice detective work.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:50 AM on June 3, 2003

Zee plot, it thickens! Googling for ezb8 also turns this page, where Anastasis (aka "Stazi") is depicted. Now, going up a directory reveals the truth:

It seems that nobody can keep something secret on the Internet. Google power users have managed to find out about my top secret project and link it back to me. Those of you who know what it is, have probably already guessed that it's a fake project. But what you don't know is that I'm writing a book about it, which will be ready to hit the streets after the summer. Sorry to dissappoint you, people, my house does not look like that. They are just pictures from the BBC's Changing Rooms TV programme. C'mon, it was too good to be true anyway, sure you sussed it right away! But I'll get you next time! :)

In short, it's a hoax, apparently started by two Greek/British friends at the University of Portsmouth.
posted by ar0n at 8:28 AM on June 3, 2003

Who is want to come Greece I can invitate! She can stay my house.
posted by scarabic at 8:48 AM on June 3, 2003

I kiss you!
posted by Vidiot at 9:23 AM on June 3, 2003

Scarabic/Vidiot: Well done. I'm ashamed to say I missed the obvious Mahir opportunity. I'm glad you didn't. ;-)
posted by ehintz at 12:09 PM on June 3, 2003

She can stay my house.

I believe that's "She can stay my home", scarabic. How dare you misquote Mahir.
posted by TreeHugger at 2:17 PM on June 3, 2003

What an amazingly stupid idea. This is why there are prostitutes.
posted by stbalbach at 5:31 PM on June 3, 2003