Comments on: Hysteria Strikes Again!

Hysteria Strikes Again!

davy — Thu, 31 May 2007 04:06:40 -0800

This time, it was a fax. Last time, it was Mooninites.

By: Mayor Curley

Mayor Curley — Thu, 31 May 2007 04:27:51 -0800

One happened in Boston, one happened in a little town out west. The Boston response was a lot more contemptible, especially seeing as it was an intentional over-reaction to burn some federal Preparedness money that we obviously don't deserve whether we don't use it or use it on bullshit.

By: emelenjr

emelenjr — Thu, 31 May 2007 04:41:20 -0800

As a former BoA associate who, for much of my career there, was the only man at that particular banking center, I could just imagine "the women at the bank" not handling it better.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Thu, 31 May 2007 04:41:37 -0800

a fax with images of a crude timer and a hand lighting a bomb Unlike the Mooninite incident, you wouldn't actually have to be an imbecile to interpret this as a possible bomb threat worth calling the cops over. I think that in this case, sole blame belongs to Corporate.

By: cubby

cubby — Thu, 31 May 2007 04:41:57 -0800

Well really - a fax of a bomb with the text "the countdown begins," plus a package in the place that nobody is claiming - I'd say that is a good time to be suspicious. The Mooninites thing, less so.

By: fallenposters

fallenposters — Thu, 31 May 2007 04:47:40 -0800

Yeah, I agree that corporate probably was a tad irresponsible by sending a fax that depicted a bomb. Perhaps just a clock would have been more appropriate for the fax.

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Thu, 31 May 2007 04:55:51 -0800

Well I'm glad the people in this thread are rational. In this thread, not so much.

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Thu, 31 May 2007 04:55:57 -0800

...a fax with images of a crude timer and a hand lighting a bomb... Even if the fax went through properly with the full message attached, how are impersonal prank bomb threats a good marketing idea? Attention-getting? Yes. Gets the message across to a bunch of people who get their news in a post-9/11 world where networks continuously whip up their ratings with non-stop updates on all potential terrorism, real and imagined? Oh geez, no.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Thu, 31 May 2007 05:19:02 -0800

Bank employees told police a suspicious package had arrived around the same time, elevating their fears..."In Ashland, the situation was compounded by the fact that we had a suspicious package on the scene, as well," [a bank spokesman] said. So what was the "suspicious package"? The bank mentions it twice but the article doesn't follow up. Wonder if it was added to the story later to make them look less stupid.

By: tomsk

tomsk — Thu, 31 May 2007 05:19:40 -0800

This is further evidence that clip art is evil and should be banned.

By: bakerybob

bakerybob — Thu, 31 May 2007 05:20:52 -0800

Wait - it was a fax from the bank's own corporate headquarters, right? Don't pretty much all fax machines print the sender's phone number at the top of the page? I guess somehow nobody noticed their own corporate was bomb-threatening (?) them...

By: grubi

grubi — Thu, 31 May 2007 05:31:10 -0800

Goddammit, someone's going to take small businesses seriously from here on out!

By: delmoi

delmoi — Thu, 31 May 2007 05:47:33 -0800

Actually before this it was a traffic counter

By: delmoi

delmoi — Thu, 31 May 2007 05:48:23 -0800

So what was the "suspicious package"? The bank mentions it twice but the article doesn't follow up. Well, they probably blew it up, so now they'll never know.

By: sidereal

sidereal — Thu, 31 May 2007 05:51:49 -0800

The Terrists don't need bombs or planes any more to disrupt this retarded country. They can literally phone it in now.

By: MrGuilt

MrGuilt — Thu, 31 May 2007 05:59:13 -0800

Boston: putting the "error" in "terror."

By: i_cola

i_cola — Thu, 31 May 2007 06:04:28 -0800

...Nick Markos, owner of Townhouse Pizza and Roast Beef... Just in case pizza wasn't enough on its own :-)

By: smackfu

smackfu — Thu, 31 May 2007 06:20:12 -0800

So what was the "suspicious package"? Well, all it takes is a box that got a little dirty/grungy in shipping, that they weren't expecting.

By: cavalier

cavalier — Thu, 31 May 2007 06:31:33 -0800

So basically, the terrorists won, right?

By: Spatch

Spatch — Thu, 31 May 2007 06:36:16 -0800

Just in case pizza wasn't enough on its own :-) Hey, put a little roast beef on your pizza and you've got yourself a meal. Actually, a "Pizza and Roast Beef" restaurant is pretty much par for the course in small New England towns. Most of the small family-owned places decide to call themselves "(Town Name) House of Pizza" but Nick Markos marches to the beat of a slightly different drummer, I see.

By: jonp72

jonp72 — Thu, 31 May 2007 06:47:39 -0800

The country that had nothing to fear but fear itself has turned into a nation of Chicken Littles. Pathetic.

By: TechnoLustLuddite

TechnoLustLuddite — Thu, 31 May 2007 06:53:15 -0800

The fax even has a MOONINITE on the bottom!

By: sparkzy

sparkzy — Thu, 31 May 2007 07:26:30 -0800

cavalier said, "So basically, the terrorists won, right?" No, it's a big score for the government. Abuse of power has been easy to justify under the guise of keeping us safe.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Thu, 31 May 2007 07:26:40 -0800

"I wouldn't have taken it as a bomb threat, personally," said veterinary technician Amy Tatreau. "However, you have to, I guess, treat things seriously these days." These days. Like some guy on a jihad is going to fax the bank ladies some clip art before making sure the Melonville Mall has been blowed up real good. You don't have to take this shit any more seriously now than you did ten years ago. Too many people's instincts have been improperly rewired for panic mode by too much crap on the TV they watch all the time.

By: JBennett

JBennett — Thu, 31 May 2007 07:35:12 -0800

It's not an issue of Clip art being evil. It's the talentless designer behind this flyer who is evil. If you can't put something attractive together, ask someone else to do it. That might be the worst example of design...period.

By: tyllwin

tyllwin — Thu, 31 May 2007 08:30:38 -0800

I don't buy an equivalence to Boston here -- or are we just drawing the comparison that when big-city public safety professionals react to a lite-brite in the same way that small-town bank tellers react to a faxed picture of a bomb, it doesn't speak well for the professionals?

By: Peter H

Peter H — Thu, 31 May 2007 08:57:52 -0800

Can you imagine the panic if it was just the words that got faxed instead? Small Business Commitment Week????? MARK YOUR CALENDAR?????

By: dilettante

dilettante — Thu, 31 May 2007 08:58:36 -0800

Don't pretty much all fax machines print the sender's phone number at the top of the page? Not always. I'm not sure if it's something set on the sending machine or the receiving one, though.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Thu, 31 May 2007 09:58:13 -0800

Side thought. I looked at the picture on the left and then the one on the right & maybe it's just me... but I don't see how that illustration could've turned out exactly that way on the fax naturally. All of the type disapppeared and convenient lines (such as the fuse for the bomb) appeared but no others? I have a hard time buying that. I think there's more to this story, whatever it is. It just doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe they cleaned up the image to show the public what people were freaking out about, but journalistically that wouldn't be right to do so I'm assuming they showed it exactly as it appeared.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Thu, 31 May 2007 09:59:30 -0800

[Overthinking a fax. But apparently not as much as other people.]

By: TechnoLustLuddite

TechnoLustLuddite — Thu, 31 May 2007 12:47:30 -0800

It looks to me like more than fax mangling. I'm guessing it was an electronic file that was sent with fax software, and the file was corrupt, or didn't have fonts embedded properly. Also, you CAN see the printed headers on both images, so maybe the first image is a fax that went thru "ok" on a different fax machine...

By: afiler

afiler — Thu, 31 May 2007 12:54:35 -0800

My thought was that it was print-to-fax software, and the print job got borked somewhere. I've had similar graphic bizarreness get spit out of a printer.

By: es_de_bah

es_de_bah — Thu, 31 May 2007 13:07:18 -0800

from boston. i'm with all the folks saying that this incident is understandable, while the assholes over here just wanted to throw a money party. this is still a funny story. (funny the right word there? yeah, i think so. tension and release + visual puns= funny)

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Thu, 31 May 2007 17:15:24 -0800

"Side thought. I looked at the picture on the left and then the one on the right & maybe it's just me... but I don't see how that illustration could've turned out exactly that way on the fax naturally. All of the type disapppeared and convenient lines (such as the fuse for the bomb) appeared but no others? I have a hard time buying that. I think there's more to this story, whatever it is. It just doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe they cleaned up the image to show the public what people were freaking out about, but journalistically that wouldn't be right to do so I'm assuming they showed it exactly as it appeared." Just the fax, ma'am.

By: MiltonRandKalman

MiltonRandKalman — Thu, 31 May 2007 17:28:28 -0800

That layout is a crime.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Thu, 31 May 2007 17:30:43 -0800

"Can you imagine the panic if it was just the words that got faxed instead? Small Business Commitment Week????? MARK YOUR CALENDAR?????" As a small business banker, I can safely and honestly say that this comment is hilarious. And I never use my favorites to vote. P.S. Ashland isn't that far west! It's east of Worcester (and of where I'm sitting AtM).