Staring So Long at These Pictures

I do not work in the Back Bay anymore.

My commute isn't much longer at my new job, maybe ten minutes, but I approach it much differently now. I have to leave the house about half an hour earlier to arrive at work on time, so the T is far less crowded. Today, I was standing up near an advertisement for an AIDS walk, listening to Year Zero (SO GOOD) and examining the ad. It was a group of people walking in a past walk, and I couldn't tell if they'd been photoshopped together or if it was just a group shot of walkers. Some people seemed to be talking to or pointing at people who weren't visible in the ad, and it just looked off. As I kept looking, my eyes popped. Was I seeing what I thought I was?

In the photograph, there's a picture of a man, walking alone, holding a flesh-colored dildo. I stared at it, convinced it wasn't possible that he'd actually been walking in an AIDS walk holding a sex toy. I know that the myriad walks are supposed to be fun ways to raise money for serious causes, but carrying a dildo seems to be a bit overboard. Did nobody else look at this picture before posting in in public? Did some bitter volunteer Photoshop a phallus in this guy's hand? Or am I just a sick creep? I wish I had photographic evidence of this sign, but I only had my shoddy cameraphone on me. I think wanting to photograph the penis in the photograph is perhaps even sicker than possibly imagining it.

On my way back to the T in the evening, I walked by a construction sign. It read
"Mass Ave Bridge
closed Sunday
4-21-07."

Huh, I thought. How weird is that? Why haven't I heard anything about this? Must have been preempted by the shooting news in Virginia.

"This sign
has be
en hack
ed."

Heh. Nobody in Back Bay is smart enough to hack a construction sign. I am out of my element.