Where did Mieskie/Anathema/Schmoker live? That Gus was in Western Wisconsin seems pretty well substantiated.
Jayne (Husband): Oh, I think you might wanna reconsider that last part. See, I married me a powerful ugly creature. Mal (Wife): How can you say that? How can you shame me in front of new people? Jayne (Husband): If I could make you purtier, I would. Mal (Wife): You are not the man I met a year ago.
'Our Mrs. Reynolds'
Bureaucracy 3: Oh, so now you want to be part of the SOLUTION?
A thread to discuss naming threads, board policy, new thread suggestions, and anything else that has to do with board administration and maintenance. Guaranteed to include lively debate and polls. Natter discouraged, but not deleted.
Current Stompy Feet: ita, Jon B, DXMachina, P.M. Marcontell, Liese S., amych
tommyrot - Jan 01, 2007 7:01:55 pm PST #7530 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
DavidS - Jan 01, 2007 7:03:03 pm PST #7531 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Where did Mieskie/Anathema/Schmoker live?
I don't know. John H. tracked him down. I don't remember the details.
bon bon - Jan 01, 2007 7:03:56 pm PST #7532 of 10001
It's five thousand for kissing, ten thousand for snuggling... End of list.
The schmoker theory sounds strange to me, as we suspected pretty quickly that mieskie had returned and no one suspected the same about Gus. I think the timeline is probably a coincidence.
Polter-Cow - Jan 01, 2007 7:05:11 pm PST #7533 of 10001
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
I mean, I could feel okay if Gus were a pseud. I got along with that person/persona.
I think this needs to be reiterated. He never did anything malicious or tried to dupe people out of money or anything like that. Even if Guy Straley was untruthful about many of his accomplishments, he was still a kind soul and a fun presence on this board.
tommyrot - Jan 01, 2007 7:05:41 pm PST #7534 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
Oh yeah - for the longest time Gus never gave us his photo. He had no digital camera (and no access to one), which is slightly odd for a demonstrated computer geek. Then he supplied one tiny picture.
Also, he never got us pictures of his kites. There was supposed to be some local TV news thingie on him and his kites - anybody ever hear what happened with that?
Um... are we piling on?
Polter-Cow - Jan 01, 2007 7:07:50 pm PST #7535 of 10001
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
I'm just surprised no one suspected anything before, if there was this much sketchiness about. Like I said, I've recently had to deal with this kind of thing, and people were suspicious of the poster for a while. But it also turned out that quite a few people were suspicious and just never said anything. And then people got together and commiserated and Googled like mad and discovered all sorts of inconsistencies and yeah.
Cass - Jan 01, 2007 7:11:21 pm PST #7536 of 10001
Bob's learned to live with tragedy, but he knows that this tragedy is one that won't ever leave him or get better.
I mean, I could feel okay if Gus were a pseud.Personally - and whoa is this hitting too many people I like in too many different ways - Gus was a poster here. Pseud or not. That is kinda fact. I mean, many of you will be entirely shocked to know that my name is not actually "Cass." But I still kinda exist.
Did he actually die? God I hope so because as sad as that seems, the alternative is just cruel. But this world we live in is the world we live in and people don't just lie, they try to cause as much pain as possible.
kimi was a new poster. I hope that she did just want to let us know and that there is nothing else at work. Can I be sure of that? Sadly, no.
Lee - Jan 01, 2007 7:12:02 pm PST #7537 of 10001
The feeling you get when your brain finally lets your heart get in its pants.
err... Some of us were suspicious, and did say things to other people. This is just the first time something less than benign came up.
tommyrot - Jan 01, 2007 7:13:07 pm PST #7538 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
I'm just surprised no one suspected anything before
Oh, some of us "suspected." OK, that's too strong a word. But some of us (at one of the Midwest f2fs) commented that he seemed "too good to be true" and we noted that no one had actually met him so it was possible it was all a fake identity thing. Speaking for me personally, it was just a tiny little doubt that sat at the back of my mind - until the whole car thing, when the doubt moved more to the center of my mind.
DavidS - Jan 01, 2007 7:14:32 pm PST #7539 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
The schmoker theory sounds strange to me, as we suspected pretty quickly that mieskie had returned and no one suspected the same about Gus. I think the timeline is probably a coincidence.
Could be so. I don't really know.
I'm just surprised no one suspected anything before
Some people did. But there was no reason to call him on it. He wasn't scamming people out of money. When the whole Weremonkeyfest of '05 fell apart, that definitely pinged me. If you've read anything about long running pseuds in fandom, there were many red flags around Gus. His whole story is almost an archetypal pseud.
Mary-sueish backstory. Incurable illness that upsets face-to-face meetings. A separate, previously unknown entity announcing the death. Inability to corroborate anything online.
His synopsis bouncing back? He forgot about the Midwestern summer BBQ he was supposed to host? He's building a fucking aspirin replicator and he can't get his scanner to work? Phone numbers left which don't go anywhere? The entire pattern is all about evasion. Again and again and again.