’Net Junkie
Shawn "Speedy" Lopes
When coalition forces began rolling into Baghdad several days ago, one keen observer of the Fox News Channel picked up on something most viewers failed to notice. In one shot, leaning against a wall several meters behind a statue of Saddam Hussein was an old, used mattress. Not a big deal, really, unless you are one of the many regular visitors of streetmattress.com, the only Web site in existence that makes a used mattress sighting an opportunity to get yourself on the 'Net. Web site draws fans
of junked mattressesAs of this writing, 116 contributors from around the world have provided streetmattress.com with snapshots of junked mattresses. These photos are submitted from all corners of the globe, from Aberdeen, Scotland, to Warsaw, Poland; from Brussels, Belgium, to Brisbane, Australia and from Sarasota, Fla., to Katmandu, Nepal.
They're photographed beside highways, propped up against dumpsters and discarded in back yards and on street corners. They're buried under mounds of snow in Dayton, Ohio, hauled off in pickup trucks in Houston, Texas, and abandoned on the Brooklyn Bridge.
One streetmattress.com regular known only as Rebecca is at the top of the site's list of contributors, with an impressive 156 submissions.
Like most participants, Rebecca never appears in her pictures, save for an outstretched arm and extended index finger, which points out her finds. One would have to assume she carries a camera with her wherever she goes, as she has submitted photos of her subjects from a great variety of locales across California.
I'd never even heard of Doraville, Ga., before logging onto streetmattress.com, but I doubt I'd be interested in visiting any time soon, seeing how contributor Timbo managed to come across an incredible 20 disused mattresses in a mere two days.
Click onto the Web site's "notables" section, and you'll find the top vote-getters in such dubious categories as "Best Composition" ("Manxey Mattress" by Derek Crawley); "Best Use of Humans" ("Sandlot Trampoline" by John Hansen-Flaschen); and "Best Use of Signage" ("Mattress Against War" by Therese Lung, who sent in a photo of a box spring found during an anti-war rally in New York City's Union Square, emblazoned with "Mattresses Against War.")
"Wow," writes one contributor. "I can't believe I stayed and looked at this site for 20 minutes."
’Net Junkie drops every Monday.
Contact Shawn "Speedy" Lopes at slopes@starbulletin.com.
Note: Web sites mentioned in this column were active at time of publication. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin neither endorses nor is responsible for their contents.
