"I found a way to alleviate your fear of anthrax in the workplace," says the cigar-smoking boss seated behind his desk. "Great! What is it?" asks the employee standing in front of him. "You're fired," the boss responds.
That exchange, from an editorial cartoon published recently in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, provides a humorous, but all-too-true capsule of the economic climate amidst the terrorist activities that began with the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon last Sept. 11.