The friscalating dusklight: Olympic mascot Internet curse
Posted on June 19th, 2008 – 5:10 PMBy Michael Rand
Suddenly, we don’t feel so strange — or serious — about having lucky underwear when we pitched 20 years ago. From Reuters.com (picture and words):
Floods sweeping southern China seem to have fulfilled the final stanza of an Internet curse involving Beijing’s Olympic mascots, but censors have been quick to remove postings that might fuel the superstition.
After a devastating earthquake struck Sichuan province last month, Internet users tied four of the five “Fuwa” mascots to the calamities that have struck China in the run-up to the Games, which begin in August. One Fuwa is a panda, the totem of Sichuan.
The others resemble a torch, reminding netizens of the protests against the international Olympic torch rally; a Tibetan antelope tied to widespead demonstrations in Tibetan areas; and a swallow that looks like a kite, linked to a deadly train crash in Shandong province.
The final Fuwa, sporting a fish, was left unexplained in the original superstition as a curse yet to come.
Unexplained, that is, until widespread flooding in southern and central China claimed dozens of lives in June.
“I am in Shenzhen. There is heavy rain for two days and no sign that it will stop… now the curse of the last “fish” has proven correct. What shall we do?” said a post by yellow_hades on Tianya, a popular online forum.
Our only question: Why doesn’t Stu feel he can use his RandBall name on that other online forum? Censors?
4 Responses to "The friscalating dusklight: Olympic mascot Internet curse"
Stu has powerful friends, and even more powerful enemies.
Stearns Co. is nothing more or less than a sanctuary from those that wish to do him harm.
Yellow Hades is my porn name.
Welp, I know what kind of porn Stu does, now. And, let’s just say, I’m not really into that…
Oh yeah, and Yellow Hades is what I’m calling my fantasy football team this year
