(no subject)

[prog]

According to sunspiral by way of this post by hrafn, there exists a meme in the northeastern U.S. where motorists put signs saying "Free NP" in their vehicles' windows, in hopes that female drivers will flash their breasts at them. (hrafn's post includes some pictures she snapped of some of these signs seen in the wild.)

It apparently originated from local radio shock-jocks around 10 years ago, and has indeed outlived them (for this was that brief era when, for some reason, there were many more shock-jocks then there are today). What I find most intriguing is that, as of this writing, there are no relevant google hits explaining this phenomenon. Googling for ["free np"] gives some sites about NeoPets, some random commercial-product giveaways, and the number-one hit of another blogger himself asking what the hell this means and noting the lack of google hits. (Fun irony!)

If sunspiral's account is corrent, then it seems that the virulence period for this meme began and ended before the Web took off among the mainstream. For 10 years it has lain dormant, with all carriers of it completely failing to spread it any further, apparently not for lack of trying.

The very notion of a pre-Web meme remaining in stasis for a whole decade is amazing to me, like discovering a stone-age tribe living in isolation.

Comments

[aspartaimee.livejournal.com]

wait, so if i flash my boobs, what do i get free? what the hell is NP?

[prog.livejournal.com]

That it's not clear whether "free" should be read as an adjective or an imperative verb really muddies the whole thing even further.

[aspartaimee.livejournal.com]

oh, it's like that episode of south park with free hat, and the way it parses. like do you get a free hat? or are they talking about that guy hat who is in prison, and they want him to be set free?

for you, i waive/wave the NP (parse that however you like), so here ya go.

( * )( * )

[cnoocy]

I often pass people on the way from work to the subway with stacks of newspapers. They seem to care deeply that someone who goes by the name "Boston Harold" is wrongly imprisoned.

Here ya go

[cramerica.livejournal.com]

@

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

I will note that the phone number of the van's owning company is legible in one photo, so getting an explanation from the person responsible for that one is theoretically possible.

[ahkond.livejournal.com]

That reminds me of this:

http://www.cockeyed.com/science/levitra/levitra01.html

It may or may not be a hoax, but if it isn't then it's a pre- or non-Web meme. The cockeyed.com guy is trying to catalogue or describe it but does not have an explanation for it.

The site has tons of other great stuff, in case you haven't seen it before.

[prog.livejournal.com]

That's brilliant. My first observation about those couches is that the word seems to appear most often under the cushions or in other places where guests can't see it, and I immediately thought: wow, a folk-magic aphrodisiac! But a few photos break this pattern, and the caption on one suggests that some wandering vandal placed it on someone's intentionally outdoor couch, so I dunno.

(Yes, it's a great site, I've linked to "How Much is Inside?" before, but I haven't explored it much beyond that.)

[rserocki.livejournal.com]

When I see NP, I think of NP-complete.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[xymotik.livejournal.com]

Driving through Seattle in 1998, I heard radio shock jock Tom Leykis urge his listeners to drive with their lights on during the daytime to get the same thing. One would think GM's daytime running lights would foil those plans.

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

"like discovering a stone-age tribe living in isolation."

Or like digging up a stone-age grave and discovering a species of smallpox that the current human race has no immunity or vaccine for.