[Jrabbit]

I think what I'm hearing from some posters....the police over-reacted to a funny prank. Nothing illegal about a cute advertising gimmick. The police, Homeland Security, bomb squads, etc. should be ashamed for not recognizing the cute little cartoon characters.

I predict that these advertising gurus will be hailed as extremely clever pranksters.

I'm sad to say.

[Miss Marple]

Little cartoon characters are not necessarily harmless. I remember Bert of the Muppets being associated with Al Quaeda.

Let's see, I want to publicize my store, so I plant my store logo in fake bombs??

Whose idea was this?

[DBrow]

" not recognizing the cute little cartoon characters."

I respectfully disagree. Circuit cards, batteries, placed at bridges here and there. (OK, to take advantage of darkness). Multiple phone calls.

But soldiers in WWII painted funny stuff on 250 lb bombs, too. That did not lessen the lethality.

Once the call "suspicious package" and "circuit card, batteries" goes out, the professionals who take stuff seriously start to roll, and they have a procedure to follow, and they followed it as far as I can see.

I bet the bomb squads may feel stupid, but the media played this up like this was 1/31, perhaps to divert attention away from W's speech on the economy.