Find Bat-Bu- Ummm...Nevermind.
I saw this post on BuzzFeed about Urban Eccentrics and could not help think of Stamford:
Urban Eccentrics
Websites devoted to tracking the weird semi-public figures in a city near you. Taking the character you see on the way to work every morning and elevating him or her to the level of semi-celebrity, tracking local eccentrics via the web is a special sub-genre of Internet famous.
An article linked in the feed from Wired catalogs a number of websites where users chronicle their sightings of these folk heroes.
In Manhattan, the Find He-Man blog publishes readers' daily sightings of an outrageously muscular, consistently shirtless man who bears a distinct resemblance to the comic book hero.
"He's kind of a local celebrity," says Paul Briganti, a student at the School of Visual Arts who launched the blog with his comedy group, beast. "It started because I was at a bank talking to a friend about this guy and someone overheard me and knew who we were talking about. Then I started to realize that pretty much everyone knew who he was, so we decided to start this kind of fan community."
The blog seems to be equal part Gawker Stalker / Chuck Norris Facts…
The Find He-Man blog brings in an average of 10,000 to 15,000 visits a month and receives enough He-Man sightings to post frequent updates, which the editors plot on a Platial map mashup and embellish with a hefty dash of humor. A typical entry: "April 17 -- Jenn saw He-Man at a drum circle in Washington Square Park playing the bongos. The instant His hand made contact with the rawhide, a huge blast erupted that cleared out most of NYU's campus."
One of our most popular posts here on Blog Stamford (in terms of comments generated) mentioned the mysterious winged wanderer who walks the city. I was guilted into abandoning the name Bat-Bum for him and haven’t come up with anything since. If had only switched the focus of the Blog squarely to him, I could have been enjoying Find He-Man level traffic at this point.
I put it out to my modest readership, aside from the aforementioned purse wielding person of interest, does Stamford have any other urban eccentrics?
5 comments :
I have been thinking about this since last night but cannot come up with anyone! All I can think of is certain restaurant owners.
Instead, I will tell you about "Hostile Asian Man," or HAM, as we called him. He appeared one day in idyllic Charlottesville, Va, stalking down the sidewalk in jeans and a t-shirt. We saw him ALL THE TIME. He walked slowly and stiffly down the street with a stony look on his face, making no eye contact. It was not funny at all. He looked like he was going to whip out an AK-47. He did not look homeless; his uniform- t shirt and jeans- was always clean. He looked like an angry grad student. You know the type.
I thought of another one. There is a woman who is a regular at Uncle Dia's who sits alone and carries on a regular conversation with a friend who isn't there. No bluetooth, I checked.
Hmmmmm... I did not realize that all of ya'll were somewhat unaware of Stamford's resident population of disabled individuals. Many go to Laurel house and are not "drug or alcohol abusers" and are cared for by staff and friend. Laurel house is known as a club house and many 'different people' can be seen coming from there with varying degree of disabilities. Many are also cared for by the FS Dubois center - which is a state agency. Most of this is because some time ago the liberals and conservatives got together and decided that state hospitals should be abandoned and the communities they come from should take care of them. Some times these people are homeless..most times they are not, sometimes they live in substandard housing or senior residences. If you take time to notice them, you will find most are friendly and delightful to talk to with insights into living that are interesting and amazing. Of course I talk from experience, I host 2 of these people in my home and have had different associations with this forgotten group for almost 30 years.
I've been curious about Laurel House for a while, actually. I'm glad you gave me more info.
And the Dubois Center is on Summer, right?
correct, tho it keeps getting moved. It was at one time on Hope st, the further "up" on Summer. Laurel house also has residential building off of Wets North St.
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