Vampires are a mainstay of horror films. Seemingly dead, they rise again unbidden under the right circumstances – usually nightfall – to carry on their (non-)existence.
The press equivalent of the vampire is the story which is initially posted online, only to be deleted (with its expectant reader served up a 404 error page instead. Ed.) and then reappear at a later date.
This happened with the Bristol Post story featured in the screenshot below.
This story originally appeared online first thing on Friday morning, only to be pulled a couple of hours later. It has now risen from the dead bearing a Sunday timestamp.
Why was it pulled in the first place, some may be wondering, particularly as it seems like a fairly innocuous tale of an elderly gentleman moaning about parking and especially since those with an intimate knowledge of the Bristol Post will be well aware of its passion for the motor car and all matters motoring.
Indeed, still on all things motoring, the only matter upon which the Post has not offered fawning support to Bristol’s elected mayor George Ferguson is the red-trousered one’s plans to introduce Residents’ Parking Zones, which the paper and its readers have attacked with gusto. One would have thought that George was proposing a murder of first-born children not some modest proposals to counter the dominance of the motor car in our urban environment.
Whether vampire stories feed on blood or some other substance or medium is as yet unknown.