The Yahoo Sports headlines caught my eye. At first for being all in lowercase. Then for how they repeated, section after section. Then, I noticed one called "i'm still not dead", reminiscent of the earlier meme here on unto. My final clue was perhaps the most obvious -- the headlines simply had nothing whatsoever to do with sports.
Thinking fast, I snapped a screenshot of the link destination in the browser bar. (Note that Greasemonkey is turned off. The mystery deepens.)
Curiosity got the better of me, so I clicked. And there it was, in all of its orangity goodness:
Whatever this site intends to be, it is a fair bit more erudite than the likes of, say, Ryne Sandberg. The author even uses parenthetical asides (how I love those) and says things along the lines of "(Conscience as the antithesis of Freedom?)" and "(An ideal Nietzschean subject?)".
And I was not alone. Others had been sucked into the Hegelian tangerine-vortex as well. Their comments all resonated with a palpable fear of the metaphysical:
"Why did I get taken here from my yahoo?" - Steve
"Yeah why are your links in the MLB section of My Yahoo???" - Mike
And:
"GET OUTTA MY YAHOO! NFL NEWS!!!!" - J.O. in Ohio
Tensions mounting, the author of the site responds:
sorry folks. i'd like to say i hacked the yahoo news links. but... i guess i would chalk up your being redirected to these pretentious philosophical ramblings to buggy code. or fate. or my friend who works at yahoo.
whichever. have a nice day.
-dan
Situation diffused, but not resolved.
Whether or not we ever really learn what happened on the day that Yahoo Sports was hijacked by the Titian Bard, He of the Apricot-Flavoured Aesthetics, this, without a doubt, is the single greatest thing to ever happen to Dan (our favourite 19th Century Salmon-Tinted Philosopher-Khan).
We're with you, Dan. Stay humble.