First, there was the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I happened to be working in DC that day, in DuPont Circle. The news media haven't talked about it much, but the plane that hit the Pentagon circled around the Mall before turning south. Apparently, the real target was the White House. Fortunately for us, the Old Executive Office Building was in the way, so the pilot couldn't see the White House in time, so tried to hit it coming from the south, before hitting the Pentagon instead. (Did I mention that those terrorists lived in my town?)
Next, the Anthrax attacks stared up. The first was in Boca Raton, Florida. The office in question is about four blocks away from where we'll be staying this weekend...
Third, there were the anthrax exposures in DC and New York, sent from central New Jersey. The DC-Boston corridor is so populated, at least half of the nation has a connection to these places. (Remember William Gibson's BAMA - the Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis? He wasn't far off...)
OK, so now we're all spooked, and every office building in the nation is evacuating when there's a little too much sweet-and-low on the countertop. The company that produces a cheap testing kit for white powders typically found in coffee is going to earn a bazillion dollars.
So, while the idea of Anthrax and Smallpox exposure sinks into the nation, it's time for the "credible threats" campaign to begin. Last week, I was teaching a class in Harrisburg, PA. It's the state capital of Pennsylvania, and typically a sleepy little town (except for when nearby Nuclear (er, NUK-u-lar) powerplants start melting down). Last Wednesday, they shut down both airports in the area because "there was a credible threat made against Three Mile Island". Fun. Oh, and there was a white powder scare on the Navy base on Thursday; even the military isn't immune from unexplained particles of dust and vehicular exhaust...
So, happy to leave Central Pennsylvania, I arrive in Philadelphia on Friday to catch up with some old friends. Turns out that's when the authorities find a quantity of C4 with detonation cable at the local bus station. It was enough C4 to blow that (meager-sized) building up and cause a lot of havoc. The good news is that it was placed in a locker three weeks before, and the folks at the terminal confiscated it when the locker rental ran out of money. Sounds like the guilty party didn't make it back to finish the job for some reason.
I'm waiting for something to happen in Baltimore now. I'm working in Fell's Point at the moment, with a very pleasant warm-weather commute across the Inner Harbor. Let's just hope it stays that way.
