Ahhh!!!! We're all gonna die!

One of my favorite jokes about Boston is this: The day after September 11, 2001, the local Boston newspapers all ran the same headline--"local Hub man looses life as NYC building collapses". It's very telling in its portrayal of Boston's insular nature, as well as Boston's news culture. Today the joke was all too real, however, as thirty or so "suspicious devices" were found throughout Boston, attached to bridges, roadways, and buildings. This resulted in SWAT teams and bomb experts being called to the scene and major roads and highways to be shut down, all during the early morning commute hours. As if the poor Boston commuter needed another reason to slit their wrist. Of course, it was still a joke . . .

So I'm sure most of you have heard by now that it was an ad campaign for a popular late night programming spot on Cartoon Network, known as Adult Swim. The "devices" were really simple electronic devices fashioned to light up, portraying a popular character from one of their shows, Aqua Teen Hunger Force. What makes it even funnier is that this particular character has a huge disdain for humans--even though he's a 2-D "Atari"-type figure--which is why he always flashes his middle finger. Which is exactly what the character was portrayed as doing in the "devices" which were thought to be of a terroristic nature. See for yourself . . .


So who won in all this? Certainly not Boston. They're the laughing-stock of the states . . . or are they? At least 10 other major metropolitan cities who support Adult Swim also had these devices scattered throughout. Boston was the only city that took the bait (if you can call it that) and treated it as a potential terrorist event. That proves that Boston takes these kind of threats seriously. But perhaps they're taking it too seriously (or not thinking intelligently enough) if they get fooled into thinking that some small, flashing sign powered by 4 D-cell batteries is a possible terrorist weapon. You can link to the best news article I've found on the story here.