Has our paranoia really gotten so bad that some Lite-Brite panels can bring a city to a grinding halt? Is Boston the only city on its toes enough to catch such things? Or are we just at the tail end of a generation gap? I’m voting for the tail end of the generation gap. And hoping that I’m right.

Looking at the evidence I’ve been able to gather from YouTube and Fox News, I don’t see threatening devices, but crudely decorated panels. And even if one isn’t familiar with the character from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, the rude character is derived loosely from the video games of my childhood, and there have to be some folks that remember Nintendo on Boston’s police force.

I just have a hard time believing that all of Boston’s law-enforcing and homeland security folks are that uncool. Why fulfill the stereotype? It doesn’t have to be true! Or perhaps we need to have pop culture classes at the academy now. Something to reintroduce all the square cops and federal agents into the mainstream of American culture? It seems that they’re just not ‘with it’ enough to recognize what’s a joke and what’s real danger, going on right under their noses.

Don’t make Turner pay the fine. Make the first idiot that called a Lite-Brite a bomb pay the fine. That’s the person that cost Boston all the panic and all that cash.

See the videos for yourself at Advertising Age: http://adage.com/outofsite/post?article_id=114675

Buy a T-shirt to commemorate the event

Update: Cartoon Network executive VP and GM Jim Samples resigned over this mess.