Did Roller-Coaster Rider Tweet Away the Pain?
Twitter user Cynful1 purportedly frets about flipflops falling, fancies fine firemen
By OWEN THOMAS
Updated 5:09 PM CDT, Tue, Aug 11, 2009
Trapped high in the air on an amusement park ride, Twitter user Cynful1 let her mind wander -- and her fingers type out tweets. She was one of dozens of riders being rescued from the broken Invertigo roller coaster at Great America in Santa Clara, Calif.
Or was she?
Cynful1's stream of messages posted on Twitter painted a picture of a bored rider whiling away the time waiting for a rescue crew to free her from her aerial cage. Among her tweeted quips:
is currently dangling her feet over the heads of grateful Great America park goers that AREN'T stuck on this DAMN ROLLER COASTER!Invertigo? More like Inverti-NO GO
is wondering when her flip flops will plummet to the ground below - and WHICH will be the first to go?
It wouldn't be so bad if there was something nice to look at - OH! Firemen
is feeling like a cherry in the roller coaster tree of life. Oh Mr. Fireman PICK ME! PICK ME!
Watching some kid three rows ahead of you puke it all over the gathering spectators 40 feet below: PRICELESS!
You know the most amazing thing about today? It's after 5 and I don't have a drink in my hand!
All very amusing. Just one problem: Twitter, which notes how a user posts a particular message, reports that all of Cynful1's messages were posted "from Web." Unless Cynful1 was toting a laptop, it would be tough to post messages from Web; most Twitterers in her situation would be sending tweets via text message or a mobile app like Tweetie.
Also suspicious: Cynful1 doesn't mention any plans to visit Great America. Her account doesn't list a location. But two venues mentioned in previous tweets, Du-Par's and Hotel Cafe, are located in Los Angeles, not the Bay Area.
Curiously, her tweets started up around 4 p.m. Pacific time -- two hours after local fire departments first reported rescue attempts, and well after saturation media coverage had begun, all of which speaks to an attention-getting stunt.
And Cynful1's Twitter icon features the phrase "Oh no you didn't," which might be a winking reference to Oh No They Didn't, a popular pop-culture blog, home to some well-known Internet pranksters.
We've challenged Cynful1 to produce herself in front of a camera. Any bets on whether she'll show?
First Published: Aug 10, 2009 7:52 PM CDT on NBC Bay Area
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