I guess it worked. I guess the terror-alert system in Washington -- the one that shot to red because two nitwits got lost in their plane -- worked. But the incident was awfully disconcerting. It reminded me of a James Thurber story, "The Day the Dam Broke," that details the chaos that erupted in Columbus, Ohio in 1913 when everyone thought the dam had burst (it didn't). Thurber speculated that the scare started when one man, possibly late for a lunch date with his wife, began to run east. When someone else began to run, perhaps a newsboy in high...