The War Between alt.tasteless and rec.pets.cats
Inciting a riotous Usenet flame war, like the war between alt.tasteless and rec.pets.cats, isn't a common notion of a good time. Then again, neither is starting fires in trashcans, blowing up one's hand with a firecracker or crashing a university computer system - all things that Trashcan Man has done, and done proudly.
If you're a reader of alt.tasteless, as I am, you've probably heard of Trashcan Man. His real name is Constantino Tobio Jr., and he's a 21-year-old history major at Columbia University, in Manhattan. Everyone, though, calls him by his self-annointed nickname.
Trashcan Man's two favorite possessions are a coin purse made from a kangaroo scrotum and a tin of Vegemite. Vegemite is an Australian food substance made from yeast extract. It has the consistency of axle grease. Among readers of alt.tasteless, who prize Vegemite for its sublimely disgusting flavor, the spread has achieved cultlike status. According to one a.t.'er, "It was the grossest thing I ever tasted. It's about as thick as peanut butter, and to say it tastes like shit would be an understatement."
Which is an intriguing thought: Trashcan Man fearing something. He doesn't even fear Karen Kolling, and she is the one who finally brought him down. Trashcan Man, like most of the hardcore correspondents on alt.tasteless, spends so much time probing the darkest grottoes of human experience and imagination that the thought of his actually fearing something is itself frightening to contemplate.
