IP: re: Anthrax Case Six Steps to Take When Envelope is Opened and the Powder Is Found

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

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> Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 10:57:08 -0600
> To: farber () cis upenn edu, ip-sub-1 () majordomo pobox com
> From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat org>
> Subject: Re: IP: Anthrax Case Six Steps to Take When Envelope is Opened
>   and the Powder Is Found
>
> At 06:44 AM 10/17/2001, David Farber wrote:
>
> >Anthrax Case: Six Steps to Take When Envelope is Opened and the Powder 
> Is Found
> >October 17, 2001 (TOKYO) -- Cases involving anthrax are increasing in 
> the United States, and so if a suspicious letter is delivered, opened, 
> and powder is found in it, here's a list of what to do.
>
> Another problem related to the anthrax scare is that many people are
> sufficiently frightened -- and sufficiently unknowledgeable -- to treat
> ANY KIND OF POWDER, including be it flour, talc, or instant pudding mix,
> as if it were a threat.
>
> Here's an example that may affect me in the near future. I play a unique
> and rare musical instrument called the Ashbory Bass (http://www.ashbory.com/).
> It's a bass guitar that produces a very deep and rich tone but is
> small enough to carry aboard an airplane rather than trusting to the
> Neanderthals that the airlines euphemistically call "baggage handlers."
> The instrument's secret: the strings are made not of metal or nylon but of
> silicone rubber.
>
> Silicone rubber is a wonderful substance acoustically, but has a tendency
> to stick to the player's fingers. So, Ashbory players routinely powder
> their fingers (I use corn starch) to eliminate the stickiness. I keep a
> small "Zip-Lok" bag of corn starch in the instrument's bag at all times.
>
> Anthrax spores are black or dark brown, and anyone who knows this
> would have no reason to suspect the bag of white powder in my instrument
> case. But it appears from news reports -- in which one man was arrested
> for putting Tide in an envelope! -- that people are unaware of this, and
> that a security screener could cause a panic and have me detained or
> arrested if the innocent bag of corn starch was discovered. So, I must
> take special pains either to take the bag out or to place it in checked
> luggage (and hope that it is not discovered THERE). If I forgot to do
> this, or if I had not recognized that the current hysteria might cause a
> problem over a bit of corn starch, I could be arrested as a terrorist and
> held for some indeterminate time while the matter was straightened out.
>
> It is a sad time indeed in America when a musician can be arrested for
> carrying a little corn starch with which to powder his fingers. The
> terrorists have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
>
> --Brett Glass


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