Digital SARS folk art: BoingBoing call for entries - QuickTopic bulletin board

The single most Blade Runner moment of my life was seeing an elderly asian man, on a bicycle with a red LED flasher, pinned to a giligan hat and with a "phone bag" old-school mobile phone and a modern laptop strapped to the bike rack, with a clear plastic garbage bag full of recyclables over one shoulder.



This was in '97, in Allston, MA. He was wearing a surgical mask. It was not a unique sight on the streets of Boston all throughout the '90s, mostly worn by older individuals and recent immigrants. The thinking was that they were protection against air pollution, and an American fashionista came up with a series of "designer smog masks" to join in the fun.