The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pasties

So it turns out my previous investigations -- Shania Twain’s drummer, Cheez Whiz -- were mere precursors to my latest find.

Let me take you back to the afternoon of Friday, July 28, 2006. I had largely completed my tasks at work for the week, so I was wandering around some college football based blogs. One of them had a post featuring a spirited group of sorority girls from an SEC University on their 2006 Bid Day. What made this picture interesting was not the fact there were approximately 50 attractive, smiling, nubile young women. The interesting part was they were all topless and wearing yellow pasties.

I got a little chuckle out of it – Ha Ha, girls gone wild, sorority craziness, boobs – then quickly closed the attachment. I was at work, after all, and I didn’t need my boss walking around the corner at that moment. To tell you the truth, I immediately forgot about it and went about the rest of the afternoon.

However, the story took an interesting twist a week later. Again, I felt satisfied with a hard week of work, so I mentally checked out and stopped by the college football blog where I had seen the boobily picture the week before.

This time there was a note that said they (the blog authors) had received an email from the president of the sorority asking them to take the bid day 2006 picture down. They said it was private, not meant for public viewing (?) and they had no authorization to post it. This particular blog complied with the request and removed the picture.

First of all, I hope the sorority president is prepared to send out thousands of those “please take the picture down” emails. With the internet, there’s simply no way you can put the boobs, I mean, cat back in the bag. The picture is out there – in blogs, message boards, being sent around in emails, etc. A simple google search can retrieve it with two key words. The picture is spreading and there’s no way you’re going to be able to stop it.

I do feel a certain amount of empathy for the sorority girls – they were just having fun and never thought this picture would spread around the globe. At the same time, that’s a horribly naïve thought, and they got themselves into this mess. Don’t want a picture of your pasty covered boobies everywhere? Don’t pose in the first place! “We didn’t think it’d get around” and “no girl authorized it” isn’t going to work. All it takes is one fraternity guy getting the picture to start a chain reaction of exponential proportions.

In their explanation for taking down the picture, they put up a link to another picture; this one of six of this year’s sorority officers – fully clothed. This picture was essentially unremarkable . . . until I looked at the names of the girls. I recognized the name of the fourth girl from the left, who was the administrative secretary. I looked back at the clothed picture and realized she was one of our interns this summer.



My thoughts immediately went back to the boobiloobily picture. Surely she was one of those girls? Due diligence required I inspect that picture a bit more closely, in my own take on “Where’s Waldo?” This would be “Greggity’s Waldo Gone Wild.”



I opened the original pic back up and surprised myself with how quickly I found our intern in a far less clothed state. I picked her out in literally one second. She’s right in the middle of the picture, proudly showing Exhibits A and B. (Sorry, couldn’t resist).

I giggled every time she walked by my desk during her last week in the office, but restrained myself from making any comments. It does make me wonder what I might expect in the summer of 2007 . . .

g.

[Special thanks to Johnny P for his suggestion of a clever title for this post. If you ever get tired of the IBM thing, I think Mad Magazine has a place for you]