Have Sign, Will Travel

January 5, 2016

So. A funny thing happened on Twitter this morning.

It started off with me browsing Carrie Fisher’s Twitter account. On her main timeline, I saw that she had re-posted a photo taken by Gillian P., of a gentleman holding a sign:

@carrieffisher Oxford Circus, London a few weeks ago.. pic.twitter.com/mcsU2aXCnp

— Gillian P. (@justgillianjohn) January 3, 2016

This is the image she shared. On seeing this, I thought to myself Huh. That dude kinda looks familiar. Something about his jacket… the sign…

And then I scrolled down a bit, and saw another photo of the same guy, taken by Joe Tarfu. Only this time he was in Germany.

@justgillianjohn @EricIdle @carrieffisher The same nutter in Germany: "Jesus will destroy you all" Fake or real? pic.twitter.com/FYKJPUJEtn

— Joe Tarfu (@JoeTarfu) January 4, 2016

Definitely the same guy, same outfit. And even the sign is a bit similar.

And that’s when it hit me: Oh my god, I TOTALLY KNOW THIS GUY.

He looked familiar because I ran into him in Chicago four years ago, while waiting for the Blue Line! I couldn’t believe it!

What a totally random series of events. And the odds! What are the odds of this happening?

For Gillian P to have posted that image, only to then have it recognized by Joe Tarfu – who then goes on to post his own photo… and to have that recognized by me. That’s just craziness.

I love that other people have spotted this man, in two different cities, in two different countries. He apparently gets around, and is fluent enough in German to be able to customize his signs.

I also like that he’s sticking with the blue, black, and red markers – as that also seems to be another thing he’s been doing consistently, all these years.

Despite these sightings, I’ve found myself left with even more questions than before.

Who is this guy and how can he afford to travel this much? Does he have a job? Is he a musician? Does he do the sign thing in between gigs, or does he play guitar in order to support the sign thing?

I had so many questions when I met him in Chicago that were never answered. And it seems that, unfortuantely, this is yet another thing that I’ll just never get closure on.

I’m still laughing, looking over these photos. And I still can’t wrap my head around the odds and the sheer randomness, of how these dots all connected together.

Oh Twitter, oh Internet… you magical place, you.