Yeah, I think the only people in this situation who don't end up looking embarrassingly stupid are the bomb squad themselves, who did exactly what they're supposed to do: got called about suspicious objects, and quickly and efficiently found, removed and disabled those objects, notwithstanding their looking relatively non-threatening. It's the bomb squad's job not to decide something's probably not a bomb because it's got a cute cartoon character on it, but to treat it as though it's a bomb until it's in pieces. They were 100% spot-on, but Turner needs to cough up the costs the city incurred plus a hefty fine, and fire the ad agency that came up with this idea, and Menino needs to stop blustering, and everyone else needs to just chill the fuck out. Also, dear everyone, stop saying "9/11 changed everything." Even if that were true, and it simply isn't, that flat assertion alone does not automatically justify everything.

Probably the worst thing here is there was also a real bomb hoax yesterday: two fake pipe bombs (http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=180349) were found near the New England Medical Center. But that story isn't getting any coverage.