Ouch

October 7, 2004 12:03 PM

Appropriate response when the town of Luxembourg doesn't let you open up a store in the middle of town? [kinda nsfw, and rather disturbing]
posted by adampsyche (32 comments total)

Jesus Christ.
posted by jon_kill at 12:45 PM on October 7, 2004

"kinda nsfw" (well, no, not really), "and rather disturbing". Also, it's mostly just pathetic for a FPP, too. Did you consider, I dunno, maybe including enough information to give us some clue what's going on? Even news stories would be a step up. As it is, the best we've got is captions that say she wasn't allowed to open up a store. And even for that, you've got to stumble around figuring out where to click. For all we know we're looking at photography from a movie set.

What kind of store? Was there any history to this; had she been denied before? Presumably there was some reason they didn't let her open it. Was there some symbolism intended in the burning, or was it pure despair, or what?

Really, you could try to make a reasonable FPP.
posted by atbash at 12:52 PM on October 7, 2004

Those pics are kinda disturbing... do we have any real idea of context, btw? What kind of shop, why was she refused permission, etc...

Not that it really matters if it was a porn store or a shoe shop, but it might give us some idea of 'why'.

What happened to her...?
posted by twine42 at 12:54 PM on October 7, 2004

Really, you could try to make a reasonable response to a FPP.
posted by adampsyche at 12:55 PM on October 7, 2004

Sorry, but atbash is right. Without the story, this makes no sense. It's just graphic for the shock of itself and, in the end, rather dehumanizing. RottenFilter.
posted by elwoodwiles at 1:01 PM on October 7, 2004

Um, I don't have any other story. The story that I have is the story that is there, and I've been unable to find the story anywhere else.
posted by adampsyche at 1:05 PM on October 7, 2004

Two minutes of searching yielded this.

Yeah, pretty lazy FPP.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:12 PM on October 7, 2004

Luxembourg is a country.
posted by hoskala at 1:17 PM on October 7, 2004

It seems like Luxembourg is also a town.
posted by jon_kill at 1:19 PM on October 7, 2004

Well, thank you so much for that link. I tried google and yahoo news, and i didn't find it. That's what I would like to think of contributing to a post. You're a better news searcher than me. Thank you.
posted by adampsyche at 1:21 PM on October 7, 2004

Luxembourg is the capital of Luxembourg (conveniently), which is a very small country (pop 0.5mil) nestled between belgium, france, and germany.
posted by fvw at 1:30 PM on October 7, 2004

I'm shocked that someone would deny such a wonderful woman the opportunity to open a store!
posted by Kwantsar at 1:43 PM on October 7, 2004

atbash has posted no links 17 comments to MetaFilter

Which doesn't mean you don't have a right to express your opinion. It does mean, however, that you don't have a right to be a dick about it.
posted by jpoulos at 1:46 PM on October 7, 2004

Wow.

I can't think of anything but mental illness for such a decision. Can you imagine the conversation between husband and wife that morning?

"Honey, I'm going to set myself on fire in the city square today."

"...what?"
posted by Parannoyed at 1:47 PM on October 7, 2004

As reported in the Luxemburger Wort and translated by Google:

Horror on the "Pleess"
On Tuesday morning occurred on the "Place d'Armes" a terrible tragedy. A woman poured over herself with gasoline and was themselves afterwards into fire. Last actualization: 06-10-2004 17:02

(yw) - Tuesday morning, 11,30 o'clock. The "Mouvement Ecologique" had called to a meeting on the "Place d'Armes". A woman from the crowd steps out abruptly and is themselves before the eyes of the spectators into fire. "Victime de racisme" is to have called the dark-membranous woman several times, before she ignited herself, reported LW photographer Guy Wolff, which wanted to shoot at the place of the happening pictures of the meeting of the environment organization. "the woman burned like a torch/flare. Three meters high flames shot Wolff towards skies and this during well two minutes ", thus. Probably the woman behind the kiosk with gasoline poured over herself, before she decided to the fright act. Beherzte passanten tried with covers and articles of clothing to suffocate the flames. "Victime de racisme" is to have called the dark-membranous woman several times, before she had ignited herself photo: Guy Wolff only by the fast employment of the emergency service of the fire-brigade got off the woman the life. The unfortunate one was flown into a special hospital to French Metz and suffers from lethal burns, was called it in the evening. How radio DNR reported, the victim had announced the act before. However the tragic play should take place on the Place of the Martyrs in the station quarter and not on the "Pleess". The desperate one would have announced its intentions before with the middle class Ministry. The victim originates from the north of the country. The reason for the act financial problems should be.
posted by donovan at 1:54 PM on October 7, 2004

ouch donovan, that makes my head hurt.

this is one of those "They'll be sorry when I'm dead" moments. or rather "They'll be sorry when my charred remains are smuldering in the town square".

also, cheers to card cheat for the extra link, jeers to adam for poor fpp form
posted by bob sarabia at 2:08 PM on October 7, 2004

Care to tell me exactly how the fpp is bad form, bob? Because I didn't find a related story? Please.
posted by adampsyche at 2:17 PM on October 7, 2004

Care to tell me exactly how the fpp is bad form, bob? Because I didn't find a related story? Please.

Well, my name's not Bob, but I'll toss in my two cents . . . the FPP linked to some shocking pictures and the text description provided some info "when the town of Luxembourg doesn't let you open up a store in the middle of town" but there was no link to information that would out the pictures in context. I was baffled when I clicked through since they just carried cryptic captions like "An unidentified Belgian woman of Congole."

Now I just figured out that if you click on a specific picture you get a bit more detail. So perhaps it's more accurate to say the FPP was a bit clumsy since you should (IMHO) expect a reader to have to click down two levels to figure out what in the hell is going on.
posted by donovan at 2:40 PM on October 7, 2004

What a whiny group.

I thought it was interesting (and how deep could the story be anyway, it's probably just one person gone insane, unless it happens again)

but then again, I also thought the "click thumbnail for more info" method seemed like the standard way of doing it.
posted by milovoo at 3:01 PM on October 7, 2004

What really gets me is that the person taking the pictures was in a really good position to help, but was in fact too busy taking pictures.
posted by kalessin at 5:35 PM on October 7, 2004

What really gets me is that the person taking the pictures was in a really good position to help, but was in fact too busy taking pictures.

I knew someone would say that.
posted by jon_kill at 7:00 PM on October 7, 2004

What really gets me is that the person taking the pictures was in a really good position to help, but was in fact too busy taking pictures.

How do you go about helping someone who has just intentionally set themselves on fire?
posted by kickingtheground at 7:08 PM on October 7, 2004

Your disclaimer was not adequate in strength or information. Please use stronger disclaimers as appropriate in the future.
posted by ikkyu2 at 8:43 PM on October 7, 2004

Now I just figured out that if you click on a specific picture you get a bit more detail.

You've seriously never used Getty Images or a photo-site like it?
posted by somethingotherthan at 9:16 PM on October 7, 2004

You've seriously never used Getty Images or a photo-site like it?

Just discovered the Intarweb last Wednesday as a matter of fact.

My point was that when I see a FPP link and follow it, I expect (perhaps it's just my thing) that the link will provide the basic information/context of the post without hunting around to figure out what's going on. And I haven't actually used Getty Images much: not enough porn.
posted by donovan at 9:20 PM on October 7, 2004

Actually, kicking, there is a technique for putting out self-immolators; a firefighter acquaintance once discussed it at great length with me at a party. As I recall, you douse them with a particular kind of fire extinguisher; if you don't have the extinguisher, you throw a blanket, coat, whatever you have over their head, knock them to the ground, and try to smother the flames by rolling them and wrapping them with more blankets/coats/etc.

Sad story.
posted by Sidhedevil at 9:53 PM on October 7, 2004

BTW, Luxembourg is also rentable, if I remember correctly...
posted by Samizdata at 12:11 AM on October 8, 2004

Freak. That's all I have to say.

Like lighting yourself on fire will do you ANY GOOD AT ALL.

Geez.
posted by erratic frog at 12:39 AM on October 8, 2004

See also Thich Quang Duc whose sacred heart is kept intact in the Reserve Bank of Vietnam.
posted by the cuban at 2:12 AM on October 8, 2004

BTW, Luxembourg is also rentable, if I remember correctly...

I think you're thinking of Liechtenstein. Which is a fair bit smaller and has a much lower population and presumably is thus a bit cheaper.
posted by biffa at 2:26 AM on October 8, 2004

cute kittens!
posted by Satapher at 2:39 AM on October 10, 2004

maybe we should clobber adampsyche with our fists and then maybe we could see a movie
posted by Satapher at 2:42 AM on October 10, 2004