Bedbugs
sabadabada
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Movie theaters now?
Movie theaters now?
sabadabada
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From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Published on Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2010 10:58AM EDT Last updated on Wednesday, Sep. 01, 2010 12:30AM EDT
It had all the makings of an epic disaster film. Less than 10 days from the annual Toronto International Film Festival, a Twitter tweet claimed a moviegoer had been bitten by bedbugs at one of the main festival venues, Scotiabank Theatre. Within hours, the scare story zapped through cyberspace, capturing unflattering headlines on such tabloid websites as Hollywood Reporter and Perez Hilton.
The consequences were potentially frightening: A-list stars, producers, directors, buyers, sellers and the world???s media reconsidering their attendance. Despite the fact that Perez Hilton was still carrying the story at 6 p.m. Tuesday, however, that catastrophe scenario seems to have been averted.
How it started
Los Angeles movie critic James Rocchi tweets an allegation that a friend of his had suffered bites to ???back, bottom, and thighs??? during a screening last week. He has 2,500 Twitter followers, who themselves have countless more. Quick on his BlackBerry draw, TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey issued a prompt, nip-it-in-the-bedbug-bud counter-tweet: ???Before bedbugs becomes today???s meme: we???re on it, we???re talking to Cineplex & are planning for an itch-free film festival.??? Mr. Rocchi is delighted. He issues Twitter updates, praises TIFF, ???for whom he has the utmost respect,??? but the damage is done.
PR crisis management
Cineplex Entertainment conducts what it later calls ???a thorough investigation overnight,??? involving a specially trained sniffing dog and a secondary visual inspection, and confirms ???that there were no bedbugs located within the Scotiabank theatre.??? Toronto Public Health follows with its own release, saying it had ???not received any calls or complaints from the public about potential bedbugs at Cineplex, nor any other movie theatre in Toronto.??? You could almost hear the collective sigh of relief roll across the city. However, after the initial statement, TIFF officials remained silent. Not smart, says Mat Wilcox, a Vancouver-based PR expert in crisis management. If she were advising TIFF organizers or cinema executives, she???d counsel them to solicit third-party reports on public safety from reputable specialists, make a ???best-in-class commitment to eradication,??? and have the CEO issue a statement putting ???all resources available behind it.???
Possible impact
Never mind bug bites, and the possibility of heavyweight no-shows. A 2008-09 study of TIFF???s economic value to Toronto put the number in excess of $162-million.
[...]
With a report from Matt Frehner
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/tiff/the-twee
It's been over a year since I've gone into a Goodwill or Salvation Army for records, etc. Too scared.
A couple of weeks ago, I took a library book out and got more and more uncomfortable about it. By the time I got home, I bagged it, put it on the porch and returned it.
I know people whose new downstairs neighbours brought them with them and it was a horror show.
I worry about them.
I'm skeeved out because our apartment is packed with 15 years of stuff and now a baby.
Today they use bait traps for roaches giving BB a green light.
I've heard everything from the discontinued use of DDT to environmental cold water laundry policies at Hotels.
There is some California company that does them in with hot hot heat, it's been proven to be effective.
A big contributor is that people associate them with uncleanliness (untrue) and so won't admit to having them and dealing with sightings before they spread and get out of control.
If they get into my records I'm screwed.
Everything I read about bedbugs has the recurring theme of the psychological impact of infestation.
My first place had roaches and that was disgusting...I stopped using the kitchen and basically stayed in my room. It was like being trapped. But these fuckers bite.
The bite pics are horrifying.
Har!
b/w
My friend is a manager at a hotel in SF where they've had to deal with bedbug outbreaks in a couple of rooms...she says that a big reason we're seeing bigger outbreaks is that airlines now pressurize their cargo holds, whereas they didn't before (or pressurized cargo holds less), and unpressurized cargo holds had the effect of killing bedbugs in your luggage. I have no idea if that's true or not, but it *sounds* plausible, and isn't that the most important thing?
Nasty Bastards
"OMG this couch would be great!"
Roaches aint shit compared to Bed Bugs.
My muthafuckin co-worker be comin to work w/ mite-bites on his arms an shit. Shit is a very bad look.
I keep all my extra clothes at work far away from dude and refuse to use the same bathroom.
U can fummigate till the cows come home and there's no guarantee these batches will completely disappear. Nasty NYC 7 to a house trust fund behavior. Die neo-hippie scum!!!!
I wasn't aware Abercrombie & Fitch, or Vickie's Secret were thrift stores (some of many Manhattan clothes stores closed for infestation??
You can get them ANYWHERE. When you buy ANY clothes, take them straight to the washer and hot dryer and do not pass go.
I just stayed at a hotel in Ontario this past weekend. Supposedly hotels are a mess of infestation.
Well, sure nuff, I have like 11 or 12 little red itchy bites all over my torso and back. Where they like to bite.
I even poked around in the room when I first got there. But they're supposedly hard to detect. They go into their hidey-holes in the day. and they're really small. And they only come out late at night to bite. And you can't feel them on your skin.
Needless to say, I'm totally freaked out. I went through my luggage with a fine tooth comb. And threw all the clothes in the hot dryer. But I can't exactly throw my suitcase and toiletries in the dryer.
My city is in the top 3. So I figure it's only a matter of time before I get them.
Bedbugs skeeve me out WAY more than any roaches or whatnot. FUCK!
And they have nothing to do with cleanliness. You can't 'clean' them away. Some of the worst infestations are in those ritzy upper East side condos. They're responsible for a lot of the initial harboring and spread.
Fuckin nasty ass rich people who travel a lot and stay in a lot of nasty ass expensive bedbug infested hotels!
Oops! A joke? Um, well disregard above rant - lol.
It's just bedbugs are my current obsession. I'm neurotically afraid of them!!!
For what it's worth, I'm the type that's fortunate enough to avoid mosquito bites. I can be with a bunch of friends who are being devoured and I walk away unscathed. I honestly cannot remember the last time I've been bitten by an insect. Maybe I'm just lucky that way.
I heard an interview a while back (before the craze) w/somebody who'd been suffering from an infestation that put one in a sealed jar w/nothing to feed on etc... and it was still living months later.
I hope u get bedbugs in your 7 dollar coffee and on in yo fuckin microbeer while you sit at the bar w/ your dirty flea infested dog and 1000 dollar baby stroller. Yo Gabba Gabba on repeat!!!!
Die you Salvation Army Navy Airforce marinebiologist bike riding used t-shirt bastards!!!!
This wasnt a problem before Guilliani made it safe for you Iowa bastards. You brought this here!!!
Fum-i-GATE yo muthafuckin L train you dumpster divin' used sneaker wearin invaders.
Real Bedbugs don't die 'cause they eventually multiply
The bedbugs I'm with, they take an eye for an eye
Because the times are so wrong, got to stay so strong
Bedbugs got to keep going on and on
And don't let no PALEface, they throw your ass in a snail race
Have your residents occupying a jail space
That's what they want to do 'cause the system is fucked around
I try to let you know what the record it's underground
They don't give a fuk about a hipster
They would rather pull the trigger
And have you in front of a barrel smiling saying cheese
So bedbugs get smart and rebel back
I'm not wit that insect-shit just so I'm not gonna yell that
All I see is bedbugs getting harrassed
We can't do nothing about it but get a foot in the ass
Yo, but a very bedbug grabbed a nine and started shooting muthafukers it would put them in line
And that's how it's suppose to be
When the pussy ass hipsters try to fuck wit me
Yo because it's useless to try
To kill a bedbug cause bedbug a muthafuking real
bedbug don't die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've read that they can go six months without a 'blood meal'.
Where to cop?
I'm absolutely serious but then, thinking about dropping $$$ on preventative measures, I can't help but wonder if this is just some ginned up scare tactic designed to stimulate the economy. I'm not even sure I'd care, cause this shit definitely freaks me out a little.
I do know one thing: I'm gonna miss going to the movies.
my girlfriend and i of 4 years almost broke up over this shitt. we spent THOUSANDS of dollars dealing with this shit, on top of our landlord spending a few grand on their part too. I still got remnants of scars on my arm, and i am fucking paranoid now of my place.
yeah they may not carry diseases, but you try get bite every fucking night and see how great an experience that is.
shit was a miserable experience and we are still trying to deal with our landlord to try and recoup some costs. add that to the fact that my chick was already a neat freak, and now we have to deal with how to try and avoid all issues that could bring these back in our lives. no movies theaters for me any time soon. and damn straight we still use big ass zip lock bags to try and contain some of our clothes if we get in sketchy situations.
we have been good for about a few months now, but fuck if i can handle that shit again. seriously would think about moving out of the fucking city if i had to deal with that shit again.
NYC needs to fucking get its act together quick with this. fuck a hippy or a dolphin or your lungs. DDT this fucking city and kill all these bitches. and give us a fucking tax credit for the fucking racket that is bed bug extermination.
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