It appears that one thing that has been overlooked in yesterday's great Lite Brite Chaos.

As it turns out, there were actually two legitimate bomb threats in two separate incidents yesterday.

While the pipe bombs were themselves fake, they apparently looked real enough. The reason why the Longfellow Bridge was shut down wasn't because of Lite Brites, but because of one of the fake pipe bombs. Same thing with the evacuation of a medical office for Tufts-New England Medical Center on Harrison Ave.

The police already have the a suspect for the Tufts case, but not for the Longfellow Bridge case.

When were the simulated pipe bombs found? Right around 1 p.m., shortly before city and state officials realized the Lite Brites didn't pose a danger.

Suddenly, the late-afternoon hysteria — not to mention the pissed off reactions — on the part of city and state officials makes a hell of a lot more sense.

While the city's safety people are scattered all over the city looking for Lite Brites, they had two simulated pipe bombs in two different locations in apparently unconnected incidents.

What's interesting is that there have been some commenters over on b0st0n claiming a connection to the Boston Police Department stating that there were legitimate bomb scares in the city yesterday, legitimate scares that got buried underneath the load of crap about the Lite Brites. These people have been pretty much either ignored or made fun of.

It took one Google minute to find this information out. Note that it's a very short article.

ETA: Information about the two legitimate bomb scares are starting to show up in round-ups about the Great Lite Brite Hunt of 2007. However, the information about the legitimate threats are buried almost at the end of the article.

Fox12 in Providence has a mention, but you'll have to read almost to the end.

NBC11 in San Francisco makes note of the pipe bomb that was found in the medical office basement, again buried in the middle of the story.

Just pointing out that there's more than one source for it besides some commenters on b0st0n and The Boston Herald.

ETA2: The BPDNews, which is kind of an electronic feed that anyone can check into, makes note of the 1:02 p.m. simulated pipe bomb that was found in a desk draw at the New England Medical Center.

Once you read that piece of information, read more. It turns out there was a flurry of bomb threat calls into the Boston Police Department all right around that time. Some pointing to Lite Brites, but one pointing to the simulated pipe bomb found on the Longfellow Bridge.

VERY IMPORTANT ETA: The BPDNews, which is kind of an electronic feed that anyone can check into, makes note of the 1:02 p.m. simulated pipe bomb that was found in a desk draw at the New England Medical Center that occurred at the height of yesterday's chaos.

The simulated pipe bomb, while not a real pipe bomb, was a legitimate emergency situation, given that public safety people were spread out all over the city.

Once you read and absorb that piece of information, read the next few parts after that. It turns out there was a flurry of bomb threat calls into the Boston Police Department all right around that time. Some pointing to Lite Brites, but one pointing to the simulated pipe bomb found on the Longfellow Bridge.

More information in this post.

*****




The Lite Brite That Menaced Boston. Photo from Boston.com



The Head-Slapping: Turner Broadcasting
It appears that both Turner Broadcasting and Interference Inc., the New York City marketing firm they hired, failed to get permits or permission to place magnetized Lite Brites around the city. This is in sharp contrast to two other cities — Seattle and Philadelphia — where apparently they (or someone else) did go through the permitting process.

In my mind, if C&C Convenience Store on the corner needs a permit to put out a stationary sign in front of their store advertising a 2-for1 beer sale, then Turner and its subcontractors sure as hell have to do it, too.

Turner and the Cartoon Network have owned up, apologized, and (reading between the lines) there may be restitution for yesterday's massive fuck-up. Good for them.


The Annoying: Local Officials
In the middle of yesterday's War of the Worlds-style Wellesian freak-out, a lowly police analyst was the first to call shenanigans. Nice to know that someone in the city government watches Adult Swim. In any case, the police analyst, upon seeing the Lite Brites that had menaced the city, spoke up.

This was about 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Even before that, the police figured out they were Lite Brites when they noticed the things they removed lit up when they were taken out of the sun and into a darkened space.

Somewhere this time, the artist who placed the Lite Brites around the city came forward, copped to what he did, and told the cops where to find them all.

Now, considering that the local officials appear to have known hours before Turner Broadcasting called to let the police department know the Lite Brites were not bombs and released a public apology — Why the hell were they feeding hysteria?

No. Seriously. Between (let's be generous here) 2:30 p.m. and when the city of Boston officially called off the hunt for dangerous Lite Brites, city officials were issuing vaguely ominous statements, complete with dog-whistle phrases, instead of saying, "Whoa! Let's step back a little bit here."

The chest-thumping you heard last night? That was the dance of, "You made us look stupid. You gotta pay!"


The Infuriating and the Hopeful: Charging the Artist

The folks at b0st0n staged a rally for Arlington artist Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens of Charlestown, pointing out that the guys were hired to do a job, and that they aren't responsible for the chaos that erupted in Boston (that was due to Turner Broadcasting and the local pols). If Turner or its marketing company failed to get the permits or win permission from the city, put the blame where it belongs. Don't put it on the artist, Ktnxbi.

Also something that I think should be taken into consideration, Berdovsky stepped forward and copped to it without any prompting from police. He has cooperated and done everything the police asked him to do. Dude! So much for being honest. If the state or city has any balls whatsoever, they'll drop all charges against Berdovski and Stevens because, of everyone in this mess, they're the only ones who are truly innocent here.

Good on b0st0n for staging the protest this morning at the arraignment. Hope people are smart enough to listen.

For anyone who's interested in the whole sordid tale, check out the Boston Globe's online collection of the 2007 Boston Lite Brite Scare.




Sean Stevens (left), 28, and Peter Berdovsky, 27, today pleaded not guilty to disorderly conduct and placing a hoax device that caused panic. Photo from Boston.com


ETA: It appears that Berdovsky and Stevens are being held on $2,500 bail each, and both expect to post bail later today. The good news? The judge thinks the state's case sucks, especially since the artists were only doing the job they were hired to do.

Don't forget to download Alice's Restaurant (link up above in this post). If you feel like it, pass the link on to others on your FList. I only ask that you explain that it's to show virtual support for Berdovsky and Stevens if you do. Okay. Yeah. Not much of a protest on my part. I just think it would interesting to see how far this goes.


ETA2: As it turns out, city and state officials may have had legitimate reasons for their over-reaction.

I would be just a little bit remiss if I didn't make note of the City-Wide Boston Chaos of 2007.

Pop quiz:
What happens when you take one viral marketing campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force on the Cartoon Network, dress them up in blinky lights and magnets, and attach them to bridges, underneath a highway overpass, and near a hospital?


Answer:
A bomb scare, city-wide panic, traffic snarls, and city and state police turning the entire city upside-down in an effort to find out what those blinky things are, where they are, and how to remove them without getting blown up.


Am I glad that I don't have to go into Boston proper for work? You betchya. My sympathies for my local peeps who do, though.

Nice of Turner Broadcasting to call the city at around 4:15 p.m. to let the locals know. I even love how the New England News Network phrased the mea culpa: "Turner Broadcasting has taken responsibility..."

Making Light has the best summary of what happened.

The hilarious/really sad thing about all of this? These blinky things have been up for 2 to 3 weeks and no one seems to have noticed. Worse, they've been up in ten cities, including Boston, and no one seems to have noticed.

There's a pretty good round up now up on Boston.com (Note: Link will expire.)



A State Police Bomb Squad officer removed a "Mooninite," the culprit of today's confusion, from a support in Somerville. Picture from Boston.com

Yup. That's one marketing campaign that won't be forgotten any time soon. Round of applause for the geniuses at Turner Broadcasting!

ETA: As it turns out, the person who planted the Mooninites around the city had a Web page showing them doing the planting. Before you ask, yup, the guy's been arrested.

ETA2 There's some confusion on whether Turner Broadcasting bothered to get the proper permits to put up the blinky things. If they did, well it's a bad on the city of Boston since apparently the proper authorities were notified. If they didn't, I can't blame the city and state for freaking the hell out. People not familiar with the city might not realize that the blinky things were put on two of the major bridges into and out of the city that span the Charles River.

So while the whole thing is funny (it's good to laugh), on the other, if the city was never notified, the freak-out is understandable given the location of the blinking ads.

ETA3: The peeps over at b0st0n are already on the case and have voted "hilarious." Check out the awesome icons that have taken over the community!

Boston Globe photo of buds on a magnolia tree at the Arnold Arboretum. According to the news reports, the weather has buds swelling and flowers popping on some of the trees and bushes at the arboretum.

It's January, it's night, and I have windows open.

What is wrong with this picture?

Everyone around me it seems — even the most determined future Florida snowbird — is out of sorts over this spring-like weather and has been since before Christmas. People are short-tempered, cranky, and positively suffering near-paranoia over this.

Where's the snow? we keep asking each other. Where's winter? This can't be a good sign. You realize our water supply is gonna take a hit. We need that snow.

It's an interesting psychological snapshot. Suddenly we all begin to glimpse at the reasons why our caveman forebears would willingly sacrifice neighbors and family in an orgy of blood to whatever god, goddess, or spirit they thought controlled the weather and then retire to dance around the bonfire to ensure the wheel of the seasons stayed on the familiar path. That's not to say that any modern 21st Century American is about to start breaking out the stone knives, firing up the bonfires, and looking a fresh young male or female virgin to sacrifice. Killing the underage neighbor is not going to bring winter any more than dancing around a bonfire will.

Yet the sense that something must be done and we have to do it quickly just doesn't seem to quite fade away, even though we know that whatever is causing this unseasonable weather is rooted somehow in science. So we are left wondering, Did a butterfly flap over Tokyo? Is it global warming coming on with a vengeance? Or is it just some weird natural phenomenon and all will be right with the weather next week/next month/next year?

Either way, the sense of "something's wrong" is unmistakable.

In the past few days, I've heard people refer to this terrifying spring-like weather as "disgusting" and "unnatural" and "simply wrong." People's allergies are acting up because the local flora and funa believe that April is here and are, even as we speak, sprouting for their long winter nap a full four months early. People are getting sick because we're dressing for winter and but are left struggling with the reality of a January spring.

Some years ago in a job that is far, far away, I worked with a New England transplant from the south. She never had issues with the snow. While we were all bitching and moaning in the is-it-spring-yet doldrums of February, she never joined in. In her mind, you see, there was nothing more beautiful than a New England winter sky. "There are days it's so blue," she said, "it's enough to make you weep."

This morning, I walked out of my apartment today to run some errands, dressed to match that blue New England winter sky with its scattered dark clouds hinting of an oncoming snow menace. I was smacked right in the face with 70-something degree weather and had to retreat to put on a short-sleeve t-shirt and a flannel shirt (just in case January finally roared in the few hours I was out running around).

As I wandered around outside and did my thing, the disquiet just wouldn't go away. It wasn't just the unseasonably warm weather, it was that the sky looked wrong for this kind of weather. Above me was nothing less than a postcard-perfect New England winter sky hanging over a textbook New England spring day.

It appears I'm not the only one who thought the visual didn't match up with warmth on my skin.

When I stopped for coffee at the local café, the woman behind the counter made a remark about the "disgusting" weather before adding, "What really worries me is the sky." She said. "It's the right sky for winter, but it's the wrong sky for the weather."

*blinks*

Y HALLO THAR NU UPD473 1N73RF4C3!

I actually don't have strong feelings about the change one way or the other, which puts me in the quiet non-majority. My one big problem is that it looks just a leeeeeetle too much like the Vox update interface.

Dear 6Apart: This makes me unhappy and suspicious. At least on LJ we can do our own HTML, unlike Vox, which keeps us in rich text mode for everything.

[Note: I signed up for Vox mostly to make sure I got the liz_marcs name, and as an "archive" for my music reviews. You can upload MP3s and stream them through the site, which is a nice feature. Other than that, Vox has zero ability to customize, even in individual posts. Haaaaaate.]

( Anyone else nervous about these DHS raids? )

In any case, the DHS raids pretty much had my attention yesterday, in large part because the way they were conducted was...worrisome on more than one level, especially given the legal and political atmosphere in the U.S. these days. There is, I think, an undercurrent of paranoia among people of all political stripes (although the cause of it is for different reasons). Usually, the more you know, the less likely you are to be paranoid. For the first time in my memory, this has been reversed. The more you know, the more paranoid you become.

I need a new layer for my tinfoil hat, I think.

In the course of my DHS raid-watching, I, of course, stumbled across the hilarious story of Michael Crichton fictionalizing a political reporter as a pencil-dicked child rapist. Apparently one Michael Crowley pissed off Crichton when Crowley wrote a less-than-complimentary article on Crichton's global warming denialism in The New Republic.

Even so, imagine my joy when entrenous88 posted a wonderful overview of the wank that has resulted from Crichton's act of asshole. Heeeee!

As a result of the wank, I now have an awesome icon (you have to read the wank to get the joke). More icons here.

MSNBC's Olbermann has even gotten in on the act, by naming Crichton Worst Person in the World.

Man, I needed that laugh, especially after reading about the DHS raids.

So, glasses up to entrenous88! Thanks for the laugh!

Because I can't resist...

The last brass token for the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) sold at 10:23 a.m. today at Government Center station to an East Boston woman... — Read more about the last MBTA token

Good-bye little brass T token, hello Charlie!





It's the end of an era. Truly.

You know what that means, right?

Music download!

M.T.A. — Kingston Trio
But did he ever return?
No he never returned,
And his fate is still unlearned. (Poor ol' Charlie.)
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston,
He's the man who never returned... — Read more about the history of the song 'M.T.A.' and Charlie, the man who never returned.

Because everyone knows that when you're naming the SmartCard that will allow people to use your public transportation system, you must name it after the guy who was not only trapped on the T, but got so lost that he never, ever returned.

Gawd, I love my city...