Special to snarfd by Brian Clark Howard.

Although the deeply tragic, horrific events of 9/11 were shocking on many levels, they weren’t entirely unforeseen. The World Trade Center had been attacked by terrorists in 1993, and experts had long warned of various enemies of America.

And in hindsight, some elements of pop culture in the preceding decades (in some cases the preceding weeks) now take an eerie, seemingly prophetic nature. They appear to foreshadow some of the death and destruction that took place that fateful September.

1. Lyrics to Soul Coughing’s Song “Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago”

In the early and mid 90s, jazzy indy rockers Soul Coughing served up dadaesque, funky jams to New York City’s smoky clubs. They were darlings of the hip and ironic. In the critically lauded 1994 album Ruby Vroom, frontman (and now successful solo artist) Mike Doughty’s lyrics were often thoughtful and witty, if absurdist.

In a verse that now seems haunting and prophetic, Doughty begins “Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago” with the following lines:

A man
Drives a plane
Into the
Chrysler building …

Check a live version of the song here:

2. Passage from Jack Kerouac’s On The Road

Written in April 1951, and first published in 1957, Jack Kerouac’s classic American novel of youth, travel and the Beat Generation contains a brief few lines that are now sure to leap from the page for any post 9/11 reader. Kerouac, a long-time resident of New York City, wrote in his largely autobiographical masterpiece:

When daybreak came we were zooming through New Jersey with the great cloud of Metropolitan New York rising before us in the snowy distance. Dean had a sweater wrapped around his ears to keep warm. He said we were a band of Arabs coming in to blow up New York. We swished through the Lincoln Tunnel and cut over to Times Square; Marylou wanted to see it.

3. 1979 Pakistan Airlines Ad

It’s now something of an Internet meme, but the vintage airline ad still startles with its bold imagery of an enormous airplane shadow on the doomed World Trade Center. The stark, black and white piece calls to mind Hitchcockian madness and gloom. What was originally meant to impress is now terrifying.

4. Pilot Episode of “The Lone Gunmen”

The pilot episode of Fox’s The Lone Gunmen, a spin-off from the conspiracy-rich The X-Files, depicted a secret U.S. government plot to crash a remote-controlled Boeing 727 headed for Boston into the World Trade Center. The apparent purpose was to increase the military defense budget and blame the attack on foreign “tin-pot dictators” who are “begging to be smart-bombed.”

The March 2001 pilot was aired in Australia on August 30, less than two weeks before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In the initial aftermath of 9/11, the show’s creators feared that their work was the inspiration.

5. The Mysterious $20 Bill

Although it is hardly something warranting a Congressional Commission, the $20 bill “conspiracy” has kept plenty of people up at night pondering – perhaps even a few who don’t own bongs. Post 1998 versions of the $20 note can be folded to reveal what resembles two smoking towers and a burning Pentagon. Folding the currency further spells the dreaded “Osama.”

The bill’s portrait subject, Andrew Jackson, is an anagram for “Jackson Warned.”  Plus, 9 plus 11 equals 20.

Try it for yourself: