Nil by Mouth

all our blogs are the

all our blogs are the same. an ordinary crisis topped by a monstrous one.

i was at work in the afternoon in paris when i got a “Knock-knock” on aim from someone i didn’t know,

TypeButter (9:08 AM): !

TypeButter (9:08 AM): the WTC just blew up again

nilsoill (9:17 AM): whos this?

TypeButter (9:17 AM): butter Jaylo’s friend

nil so ill (9:18 AM): oh – hey – do you know who i am?

TypeButter (9:18 AM): yeah

nil so ill (9:18 AM): what’s with the wtc?

TypeButter (9:18 AM): i must have put you in my buddy list at some point

TypeButter (9:19 AM): the World Trade Center blew up again

nil so ill (9:19 AM): holy shit!?

TypeButter (9:19 AM): seriously

nil so ill (9:19 AM): i’m living in paris right now

TypeButter (9:19 AM): lol

nil so ill (9:19 AM): where’s the story

TypeButter (9:19 AM): US tv

TypeButter (9:20 AM): dude… giant smoking hole in each tower

nil so ill (9:20 AM): hmm – i can only do websites – was it bad? a bomb?

TypeButter (9:20 AM): not sure

TypeButter (9:20 AM): i think a plane crashed into it

TypeButter (9:20 AM): but then there was an explosion in the other tower

TypeButter (9:21 AM): i was half asleep… my tv is on a timer

TypeButter (9:21 AM): it turned on and there was an explosion followed by static

nil so ill (9:21 AM): you are so lying~!

TypeButter (9:21 AM): im so not

Here’s the full transcript from Butter

he was a friend of a coworker that had put me on his buddy list three years ago. The jetnoises, or TV, or jetnoises on TV had woke him up. And mine was the only lit globe on his buddy list.

i scrambled for an url.

cnn.com was down.

msnbc.com was down.

npr.org was down.

abcnews.com was down.

finally i managed to get a 1 sentence newswire from AP. I could only title it as “oh shit!”. The office didn’t believe me at first. i didn’t believe me at first.

“yer lying” i punched to TypeButter

no no no he punched back. and slowly im windows started popping up everywhere on my screen. We found a french webcast and watched in horror.

“Hole vache!”, a cry from a french coworker.

Me, hands on my face. I knew the enormity of the Worlde Trade Center. The people pour from it daily. This was the worst anything; And no one had any words.

We watched the building come down in a pixelated window. “Oh God,” was all i could come up with. Hands on my face. For 3 hours this went on. Head hurts, lunch stoppped digesting hours ago. Aim windows everywhere. And no one had any words. I rode the metro home when i couldn’t take anymore. The ordinaryness of the paris train was soothing. We could walk slowly home. Stopping off to buy a bottle off red wine. And then i began to cry. And i have no words for it.

It was only this morning that I saw the real pictures. The rich quality zoomed ones. The worst ones. The ones that show the terror of the poeple above the smoke.

On my walk to work this morning, I tried to imagine the new york skyline without the World Trade Center. What about that simpons episode? The tourists postcards? Everyone’s awestruck cityscape snapshot from the Brooklyn Bridge? All with a new meaning now.

Who of us could ever have imagined our temples in ruins? A modern parthenon for a modern Rome.

And what will replace it? A memorial I imagine. Another high rise? And what about the scores upon scores of people, business, machines, Life? From the ashes there is horror, sadness, disgust, helplessness, and heaps and heaps and heaps of possibility.

I have no words except: New York I love you. America I love you.

Notes:

Death Grips the Heart of Lower Manhattan

Peter Slevin and Barton Gellman Washington Post Service

Wednesday, September 12, 2001

A new breed of terrorism

By Laura Miller

Salon.com

U.S. probe focuses on Bin Laden

By Karen Gullo

Sept. 11, 2001 | Washington DC (AP)

Attacks spark global red alert

September 12, 2001 Posted: 3:43 AM EDT (0743 GMT)

Cnn.com

• Sep 12