Living the Wally Lifestyle

Saving Pyro Boy

April 08, 2008

It seems Pyro Boy is becoming a minor celebrity stemming from a simple bit of trivia regarding Wikipedia. Recently, author John Broughton wrote an interesting book about Wikipedia called, Wikipedia: The Missing Manual..

In an article about the book, he describes his efforts while working with Wikipedia to save some articles from deletion. Among some of the notable articles he has saved include, the Jitterbug telephone; Vladimir Narbut, a minor Russian Acmeist poet; Sara Mednick, a San Diego neuroscientist and author of Take a Nap! Change Your Life; and (yours truly) Pyro Boy, a minor celebrity who turns himself into a human firecracker on stage.

A few weeks ago, someone alerted me to all of this after reading a review of the book on NY Book Review (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21131). I thought it was kind of funny and left it at that. At the same time I wondered, how much longer will I be listed in Wikipedia? Will my minor fame as a wikipedia article disappear?

Today the article was republished in Germany in the publication Süddeutsche Zeitung, but now pictures have been added, including one by Wally Glenn, aka Pyro Boy, himself. Yay! A photo credit!

I really find it funny that I have minor notoriety based on a daredevil stunt I do and now I have minor notoriety based on an article based on a book about wikipedia where there is a minor mention of the fact that I was slated for deletion, but saved. Is that contrived or what?

I sure hope this helps save Pyro Boy from deletion from Wikipedia.

For those of you who have updated the article recently, I thank you. I actually appreciate it. I am interested to see what happens from here.

Pyro Boy Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyro_Boy

Süddeutsche Zeitung Article PDF:
http://pyroboy.com/pdf/sueddeutsche.de.pdf

And John Broughton, someday I'd like to take you out for coffee or tea or whatever it is wikipedia editor types drink. Personally I hope it's bourbon shots with beer chasers at an East Bay Rats party, but I'm flexible.

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