Sharpen your schadenfreude — no cheating with Fucked Company — and guess which companies got scooped up, and which were left at the bottom of the barrel. (I got 17. You?)

Acquired or expired? [Cerado.com]

The original story: A former dot-commer released tumbleweeds upon South Park during the Bust. But who? Why? With what PR firm egging them on?

After Valleywag bugged Dan for background, he dug up the weed-tumbler, Lisa Meckler. The former Wired Magazine employee gathered some tumbleweeds in 2002, issued a press release, and scattered them across the South Park lawn. Above, a photo of the event coaxes poetry out of Dan.

Two sidenotes after the jump.

Tumbleweeds: The Back Story [Tech Chronicles]
Home of dot-com revolution to be given final valediction [Send2Press.com]
Earlier: Tumbling tumbleweeds [Valleywag]

Note that according to Meckler, the tumbleweeds "just sat there." Fost originally wrote that they "roll[ed] across the lawn." Career-breaking fact-check scandal?

Also: In her press release, Meckler described a "fog-like unease" blanketing San Francisco. I think it's called "fog."