My Norcal culture-informant has forwarded a picture of a sign from a <SF-area> bathroom which reads in red serif:

"Due to recent world events, please clean up all body powder before leaving the locker room"

Other than the fact that a number of the scares are very real, the whole thing keeps feeling more and more like a bad Monty Python episode. Friday's British Medical Journal, cited in another AP anthrax roundup story below, describes the free-floating bioterror anxiety as "mass sociogenic illness." As Ken Alibek testified before the House this week, the primary desired effect is psychological disruption, not body count... <<...An Australian lawmaker's office was sealed off amid confusion over ashes from a Hindu temple, and American Express apologized for sending plastic snowflakes to Swedish customers as anthrax scares multiplied worldwide on Friday.... Parliament security officers in Australia's New South Wales state sealed off the office of a lawmaker after a worker found a package full of ashes postmarked from the ``Wandering Swamy of Arunchala Hills.'' The package, the lawmaker later explained, was holy ash from a swami he met during a recent trip to India. American Express Co. said Friday it will send letters of apology to some 40,000 Swedish card holders who received a promotional Christmas mailing containing an envelope with plastic snowflakes marked ``spread these out.'' The mailing prompted angry phone calls. ``We understand that people are upset,'' said spokeswoman Gunnel Engberg. ``They complained that the timing was inadequate, not that it was dangerous in any way.'' >> <http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011019/wl/anthrax_overseas_17.html>