Remembering when "flash mobs" were...fun
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Remembering when "flash mobs" were...fun
What in the name of God has happened to that great American institution....the "flash mob"? I'm so old that I can remember when "flash mobs" were supposed to be nerdy fun, way back in a prehistoric era when Dick Cheney was popular and the Phillies, not so much -- the bygone days of the fall of 2003. In fact, in my guise as an undercover investigative journalist for the Daily News, I attended what was billed as the first-ever Philly flash mob of that golden age.
Here (via Nexis, since Philly.com's archives policy is also still stuck in 2003) is the top of my exclusive report from Sept. 6, 2003:
IT IS 5:35 P.M., and we are all looking for Erin Beige.
Or maybe it's Aaron Beige.
Either way, we have all come to the new Borders at Broad and Chestnut - the young woman with the fire-truck hair, the backpackers in baseball caps or "Cat in the Hat" headgear, a mother holding her 3-year-old aloft, and a man in a lime-green leisure suit.
Suddenly, there is spontaneous whooping and applause. Flashbulbs pop. And then total strangers hug each other - something that hasn't happened in this town since, oh, 1983.
This was Philadelphia's first-ever flash mob. Like most trends, this national fad of summer 2003 had looped its way slowly through the hip streets of New York and Seattle before finally arriving here - with the shadows of autumn approaching.
You may well be asking, 'What exactly is a flash mob?" A flash mob is like the marriage of an e-mail worm to a reality-TV show, a cousin to performance art. It is created by a group of mostly strangers, known only through e-mail, who make secretive plans to meet at a predetermined site, do something inexplicably bizarre for a couple of minutes, and then scatter quickly back into urban anonymity.
At New York City's Toys 'R' Us store in Times Square, hundreds of people bowed down and cowered before a giant toy dinosaur. In London, more than 200 people met in pubs and marched to a furniture store, where they all called friends on their cell phones and praised the sofas.
Yes, you may not realize it, you terrified suburbanite watching "Action News" and eating Pringles on your couch, but "flash mobs" used to be for hipsters, for geeks -- and they were supposed to be fun. Now, in just seven short years, aided by something like Facebook that did not yet exist in that ancient era of "Yahoo! groups," the flash mob has devolved into this kind of monstrosity.
Have we really sunk this low this fast, America?
(Top photo, shows a rival 2003 "flash mob"at the Penn Bookstore, is by Sandy Smith.)
so when are we going to revoke there free transpasses? Butkovitz actually made a good point.— Landfill- TPS, I can read a graph as well as anyone else. I want to see the underlying data and what was asked and what was reported. You agree, don't you, that if my Alabama example is correct that's a bogus report of "jobs saved?"— pj katauskas
- I remember those days.......that was back when people still believed liberalism was a viable option in America......— tjm333126
- ////Nice to see that once again, Repubican Party supporters gleefully generalize about all African Americans on the basis of the behavior of a few. //// Eh, wasn't the whole "Ne-gro dialect" thing first said by a Democrat, a very powerful one, at that? Please tell me you picked up on the obvious attempt at sarcasm in the original post.— General_Turgidson
- ---}}} You agree, don't you, that if my Alabama example is correct that's a bogus report of "jobs saved?" {{{--- No doubt. But that situation would NOT be reflected in a graph that shows actual reported job loses. And yet, you are inclined to dismiss the data provided by government agencies. You apparently, believe that those evil libz are in control of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and rigging the unemployment reports on job losses. Personally, I'm not a believer in conspiracy theories.— Talking point sleuth
- TPS, do you believe that just because someone displays data on a graph the data is necessarily correct? Geez!!— pj katauskas
- ---}}} Please tell me you picked up on the obvious attempt at sarcasm in the original post. {{{--- Dismissing, just this once, your weak "Mommy, mommy, they did it fiiiiiiiiiirst" defense - Biden used that term and then apologized - saying it was inappropriate. Our beloved ARt used it to specifically deride an entire race of people. And of course, like you, none of his ARt brethren called him on it. But yeah - the reason why so few blacks support Republican candidates is that blacks aren't smart enough to understand what's in their own best interests. LOL!— Talking point sleuth
- TPS, you missed my point, it seems. I was talking about supposed "jobs saved or created" and how data on that was derived, not job losses. And no, I'm not a conspiracy theorist. Just a born sceptic.— pj katauskas
- ---}}} TPS, do you believe that just because someone displays data on a graph the data is necessarily correct? {{{--- LOL! The graph displays data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, pj.— Talking point sleuth
- Oh, heavens, forgive me!!! The BLS, they should never be questioned as they are always correct. That's the LOL part! Let's just blindly accept all fed govt data.— pj katauskas
- This is what you wrote, pj --snip-- TPS, I can read a graph as well as anyone else. I want to see the underlying data and what was asked and what was reported. --snip-- In that, you were calling into question the validity of the data on job loses collected from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That data show a dramatic turn-around in job loses concurrent with the change between the Bush and Obama administrations. And a dramatic turn-around in decreases of job loses is tantamount to "jobs saved." Independent economists have concurred that millions of jobs were "saved." The graph would not have been affected by your Alabama situation, pj. The "jobs saved" on the graph are reflected by fewer job loses. It implies the assumption that barring the stimulus, job loses would have continued at the rate that they were during the entire last year plus of the Bush administration. Of course, the argument could be made that there would have been a turn around regardless - and I don't know of anyway to disprove that argument - but independent economists attribute the turn-around in job losses to the stimulus policy.— Talking point sleuth
Comment removed.- ---}}} Let's just blindly accept all fed govt data. {{{--- I thought that you don't believe in conspiracies, pj. What do you call believing that everyone in the BLS is in cohoots to rig the data, with no one stepping forward to blow the whistle? LOL!— Talking point sleuth
- @TPS The rate of job loss is declining, but we are still losing jobs every month. Please explain how this differs from every other recession we have ever gone through? was the bottom of every recession the result of a stimulus package, or just this one because your fantasy lover instituted a give away package to his supporters?— Fascinated
- "but independent economists attribute the turn-around in job losses to the stimulus policy.' Really? Do you have some examples?— Fascinated
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