Greg Packer: Ground Zero, Princess Diana, Bill Clinton and now…the iPhone

Well, it’s all over but the crying now, Greg Packer has his iPhone.  Packer has waited in line outside Apple’s main  New York city store since Monday in hopes of being first in line to buy the over-hyped hardware.  Why is this interesting? Well if you recognize the name, Greg Packer, its for good or bad reasons depending on your point of view. He has been the ubiquitous “man –in-the-street” interview/quotemaster for hundreds of newsmaking events and has been quoted over 100 times in everything from the New York Times and Associated Press to CNN and MSNBC.   According to a Columbia News Service article about Packer, a retired highway maintenance worker from Huntington, N.Y: “He was first in the line to see ground zero when the viewing platform opened at the World Trade Center site December 30, 2001. He was the first in line in 1997 to sign the condolence book at the British consulate when Princess Diana died. He slept outside in the snow in Washington in January 2001 to be the first in line to greet President George W. Bush after his inauguration.”  According Wikipedia,  After the ubiquity of Packer’s quotes became public, he was still quoted and referred to occasionally, but sometimes with more disclosure of his identity provided. When Bill Clinton began his book tour for his memoir My Life, Packer was first in line for Clinton’s first signing; a 2004 New York Times article on Clinton’s appearance referred to Packer as “Greg Packer, 40, wearing a New York Yankees shirt, who has been cultivating the press for several years now and manages to attend at least two news events a week.”  Nevertheless, not all journalists include such disclaimers; an EpochTimes.com article in 2005 on the release of the novel Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince simply stated: “The book buyers, mostly adults, were largely local fans, like Greg Packer of Long Island, 41, who admitted he had not yet read all the previous editions.” Similarly, when Packer attended the Super Bowl victory rally for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2006, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review identified him only as “Greg Packer, 42, a lifelong Steelers fan from Huntington, N.Y.”  It’s immediately clear what Packer will do wit his iPhone.  According to the IDG News Service:  Though he committed himself to spending nearly five days living on the street for the iPhone, Packer said he’s not “computer literate” and doesn’t own an iPod. “I’m not really a technology person, but I’m doing the best I can to keep up with technology,” he said. However, two of his favorite things are music and the phone, so Packer, who said he has camped out early for concert tickets and sporting events in the past, wanted to be first in line to get the product that combines the two and provides Internet access at his fingertips. “I want to see what it’s like,” he said. “I want to give my review of it.”