“And I’m not exactly Halle Berry…”
“I’m Barry Bostwick!”
“Who’s Barry Bostwick?”
You’re probably familiar with this commercial – Hallie Eisenberg unzips the Pepsi to reveal that it’s actually Pepsi Twist. Then she unzips herself to reveal Halle Berry, who unzips the Pepsi Twist, showing that it’s actually Diet Pepsi Twist. Then she goes to unzip herself, to reveal… she’s Barry Bostwick! And who is Barry Bostwick? He’s an actor, but that’s not important in this context. For I’m not exactly Ben Schumin… I’m Lindsay Ravenelle, the brain behind The Schumin Web, and there I am in the picture at right. Yes, for the past six years, you have been deceived – Ben Schumin is a figment of my imagination, portrayed on the Web site by my partner in crime, Patrick Rose. Six years ago, we started this Web site with the intention of seeing how long we could make the world believe that Ben Schumin existed, who we designed to be pretty darn geeky. I mean, seriously… what kind of college student rides a scooter and collects fire alarms? One who would be the geek-extraordinaire, and proud of it, too. And it seems we’ve been fairly successful in our little project, too. We’ve gotten coverage in JMU’s Turf magazine, we’ve been featured on the Web site Portal of Evil, and who can forget Spinnwebe, where Greg devoted an entire week to “Ben Schumin”? We got a major chuckle out of it, indeed. Now, though, with Patrick transferring from JMU to the University of South Florida to study Marine Science, I will be without my friend and co-conspirator for the first time since I met him back at Stuarts Draft Middle School in sixth grade (yes, we’ve known each other for that long). And thus “Ben Schumin” will be no more since my model and partner in crime is leaving me. So what do you all think I should do with the site now? Should I focus on myself now? Should I just retire the site? Any other ideas? Either way, let me know – ben@schuminweb.com as always, though now it feels really funny to use this Email address now that the secret is out. Alternately, of course, if you thought this quote was at all serious, you’re only kidding yourself. April fools!
Date posted: March 31, 2002
Notes: The commercial I'm referring to is a 2001 advertisement, introducing then-new Pepsi Twist. Thanks go out to my friend Emily Greene for portraying Lindsay Ravenelle for me in the quote-pic and the circle-pic. I actually got a lot of fan mail for "Lindsay Ravenelle", and Emily got a lot of attention for the quote around campus as well! Additionally, the main page was embellished for this quote with some minor changes. Take a look:
