By The Way...

Monday, January 22, 2007
4:14:00 PM EST
Hearing Is It Like Today? -- World Party
A chance encounter with a really astounding back seat has inspired this Monday Photo Shoot:

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Take a picture of a real mess. Messy rooms, trash cans knocked over by raccoons, kids playing the dirt, pets tracking in mud -- anything that makes you go "My God! This mess burns my very retinas!" is what I want you to take a picture of.

Like this:



This is the back seat of the car my car was parked next to this weekend, and it is appalling -- literally filled up past the armrest with crap. Jimmy Hoffa could be in this backseat. Amelia Earhart could be back here. Elvis! Elvis is somewhere in this back seat's moldering recesses, wishing he were back Graceland. So do we, Elvis. So do we.

This is the La Brea tar pit of back seats. I would be frightened to even get in this car, for fear that some subterranean creature would whip out its tentacles and drag into the back seat, never to be heard from again. I am frightened of this back seat and its anaerobic strata of trash. I get down on my knees and thank whomever it is that exists above that my own personal sense of cleanliness kicks in earlier than this. Lord knows, I'm a messy man. But even I know when it's all gone too far.

Your turn: find a fine mess, take a picture of it, post that picture on your blog or journal and then come back here to leave a link!

(Since there a likelihood of kids involved in these pictures, a reminder of AOL's standard disclaimer: Please be careful about posting pics of your kids, especially kids under 13. You shouldn't post personally identifying information (such as the name of their school), which could easily be used by people you don't know on the Internet to contact them. Also, it's against official policy to post photos of other people's under-13 kids (this includes relatives) without parental permission.)


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This entry has 15 comments: (Add your own)

• #15 Comment from helenmarko 
  1/26/07 11:35 PM | Permalink

  John,
  
  What started as an amusement with me turned to something sorrowful.  I didn't think I'd have time to do your Monday Photo Shoot this week, but I ran across this a few days ago and couldn't let go of the sight and also did a photo blog of it...
  
  http://journals.aol.com/helenmarko/Tereshkova/entries/2007/01/26/monday-photo-shoot-what-a-mess/1186
  
  Helen
  
  
• #14 Comment from nicurnmama 
  1/24/07 5:05 AM | Permalink

  my family left me a mess and an empty linen closet for my day off after a long, exhausting stretch at work.
  http://adventuresinjuggling.blogspot.com/2007/01/monday-photo-shoot-something-for-my-day.html
  they are truly givers!
  laura
• #13 Comment from jmorancoyle 
  1/24/07 2:58 AM | Permalink

  http://journals.aol.com/jmorancoyle/MyWay/entries/2007/01/24/john-scalzis-monday-photo-shoot-what-a-mess/1950
       I have to admit, that if I were paid and given the crap to do it, I couldn't top your mess. WOW! Hope you enjoy mine.
  Jude
  
• #12 Comment from rescueplanet 
  1/23/07 7:03 PM | Permalink

  Camera's out of batteries, suprise...suprise..but seriously my camaro could out do this cute image, mind you on a much more ecologically based mess.....hay and straw.  Yes my baby an 84 Camaro doubles as a truck....don't tell her....lol.  With the rear seat down she's good for a 5 bale of hay or straw haul....just don't open the windows in the wind.    Picture forth-coming...fun blog..glad I found it.  EM
  
  http://journals.aol.com/rescueplanet/rescueplanet4razor
  
• #11 Comment from mavarin 
  1/23/07 5:34 AM | Permalink

  I'm ashamed to show you the worst of my messes.  How about my third or fourth worst? - Karen
  http://outmavarin.blogspot.com/2007/01/snow-by-day-not-too-fine-mess.html

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