By MICHAEL SCHENKLER

It’s been close to home — too close to home.

First there was the horrendous, barbaric terrorist attack striking at our City, downing the World Trade Center, taking some 6,000 lives including neighbors and police and firemen who served our borough. It was an impersonal attack on random civilians unlike any barbarism ever known to mankind.

Terror? No, our City responded with some fear, sorrow, incredible shock and a unity of commitment of purpose unknown in the past half century. The nation joined in, with support of equal magnitude, as we prepared to rebuild together and go to war with terrorism.

And our Mayor, the man who, although effective, was as divisive as any in our fair City, rose to the challenge and has united us and led us bravely, boldly and brilliantly.

And our President, the man who previously was portrayed as an inept, babbling good ol’ boy, rose to the challenge and has led us proudly, prudently and presidentially.

And although we were at war, and although the threat of more terror loomed, we moved on — cautiously. We are recovering. We will recover. Our economy will come back — that is already apparent. Our spirits never failed. And our way of life will be unchanged, only a bit of inconvenience and additional security will be the norm.

I was on the cell phone with Lil (my wife) the other day, as I approached the tollbooths of the Midtown Tunnel. It was my first trip into Manhattan since Sept. 11. Now I had chatted with quite a number of people who had regularly made the trip through the Tunnel or over the bridges. I had experienced the almost daily rush hour backup from the Throgs Neck Bridge all the way back onto the LIE. I had been regularly asking questions to try to monitor the situation.

So, I approach the tollbooths and it looks like an armed camp — unlike anything described to me by the regular commuters — perhaps I was seeing the introduction of the National Guard to supplement or replace the NYPD. There were soldiers in camouflage everywhere — National Guard, I guess. Three trucks pulled off to the side, and a large handful of soldiers were searching each. A dozen other soldiers and several NYC policemen stood between the flow of traffic and the tollbooths. The traffic slowed and in two lanes moved between soldiers who eyeballed each vehicle and waved them on. I didn’t see any actually pulled over. At the tollbooths, there was a cop at each station, including the E-Z Pass lanes, giving another eyeball at drivers.

The trip through the tunnel was uneventful except for the flashback to childhood when I recalled worrying about being under water and wondering: "what if?"

As I griped to Lil about the armed camp and not wanting to live in a New York seemingly under siege, she assured me, I’d be used to it shortly. Even the three HumVees that drove by me on 2nd Avenue will be accepted as business as usual in our City.

The airports have clearly changed and have a lot more changing to do. And we all will get used to the heightened security there and at large gatherings and public buildings.

But damn it, they’re fucking with the mail. Placing anthrax spores into envelopes and mailing it to news media and high profile companies is another indication of the level on which our enemies function. Merely watching the Taliban treatment of women and slaughter of innocents should have indicated to us that the terrorists they harbor represent the vilest form of humanity.

Although authorities have refused to tie the mailed anthrax to the Sept. 11 terror, this writer – as most rational thinking people – believes they are the handiwork of the same groups of hate. And just as we were almost adjusting to the impact of Sept. 11, our foundations were rocked again. No, it was not as violent, not as sudden and not as threatening. But in the case of this writer, perhaps closer to home.

The first target, American Media in Boca Raton, Florida is 10 minutes from my mother’s home. Allison, Lil, Lee (when he used to travel with us) and I stayed at a hotel walking distance from the building dozens of time. I know the turf well.

That’s not all . . . I have an old friend, a journalist transplanted from New York to Boca, who had been in the American Media building during the potentially dangerous exposure period and was being tested for anthrax. He had gotten a clean bill of health and I was online with him Friday morning informally interviewing him for this column.

Tim is an easy interview, he scripts it all himself. Tim McDarrah was raised a journalist. His father Fred was the original photo editor for the Village Voice and Tim, a legend in his own mind in NY journalist circles, has held a variety of reporting jobs in New York. He offered the following credentials to me: former NY Post Page Six editor and News Communications staffer now working in Florida on a ‘60s Encyclopedia for Macmillan. His claim of being tall, dark and handsome is where the sunshine had obviously affected his well-honed observation skills.

In Sept Tim went to have lunch with an old NY Post friend who is now at American Media. He received a brief tour of the four-story building in a corporate park, which he described as, "big, ugly, and modern." He was inside no more than 20 minutes and was shown basic newsrooms, going nowhere near the mailroom. "At least I didn’t see it, but of course there is mail all over in a newsroom," he explained.

After the first incidence of anthrax, anyone in the building after Aug. 1 was supposed to be tested. So Tim went to get tested in the Delray Beach Health Department, 10 min. from American Media in Boca, and reports: "I passed. I had some concern, sure, but I was really not scared of anything."

So, Tim, you went to get tested with a batch of journalists, what was it like? I asked.

Tim, always the journalist unloaded: "It was a media gang bang — a social hour. Easily 20 print reporters and 10 camera crews, network, cable and local covering it — with so little to report. Everyone was sharing generally bad information and offering theories on everything from how the terrorists took over the planes to how the anthrax was spread and everything in between. 

"The passing public was not happy about the media presence. They never usually are. Of course, there was some debate about what media should and should not report. I am on the side of full disclosure on any info a reporter can gather, as military has a track record of lying. There were handfuls of vendors — flag and tee shirt sellers, mainly, but nothing like what it would have been in NYC. The NYers there spoke a lot about the Yanks — if they could beat the A’s. There was some talk of what Rudy should do next. And there was lots of talk about good local places to eat.

"Reporters had already had their fill of speaking to people who were tested. They were basically there in case there was another announcement that someone had been infected.

"My main impression (this is called burying the lead): There was NO gallows humor. That was the most striking thing. With all those quick-witted journalists, there were no smiles at all. In my career, I have made and heard jokes about ANYTHING and everything, from: ‘Son of Sam,’ to Robert Chambers, to Gotti, to Goetz, to Bess Myerson, to Sharpton, to Gulf War, to Lockerbie, to various domestic disputes/murders, to kids getting eaten by polar bears in Prospect Park, to cop shootings, to abandoned babies, to drug overdoses, to JFK Jr’s plane crash, to AIDS. Not proudly, perhaps, but as you know," Tim told me, "That is how media folks often deal with tragedy — with humor. There was none of that now. I mean zero."

Tim wrapped up, "I dunno what else to tell you. Any q’s? I’ll answer them, but that’s more or less it..."

My exchange with Tim was interrupted several times. Steve McGuire, Tribune assistant editor came into my office to tell me about the discovery of anthrax at NBC News in New York. I told Tim. We both turned on the television and broke to make calls and gather info. Tim got back to me first with the info that it was a member of Brokaw’s personal staff.

Tribune reporter Angela Montefinese’s phone call was the next interruption. She was on the phone with a friend who works at the N.Y. Times, when that friend was told to leave the building — evacuated.

It didn’t take much more news for our newsroom to start buzzing. Trying to lighten the moment, I called several people into my office individually to inform them that their job description was being modified and that they were now responsible for opening the mail.

Several of us discussed the matter seriously. We are a news organization and although we are truly local, American Media has no real international coverage — perhaps no real coverage at all. Our corporate name, "News Communications," could suggest greater scope than our base. Our company does have a publication in Washington, D.C. which covers Congress. Could we be a target?

Staff outreach to the U.S. Post Office, FBI, NY Health Department, NYC Office of Emergency Management, NY Press Association, NY Press Club, as well as a variety of other governmental offices gave us little guidance on how to handle our mail.

Most of the people we needed to speak with were in meetings. By day’s end, we received a general memo from the post office offering advice similar to that given on television and a tip sheet which opened: "The United States Postal Service has not had one confirmed incident involving the use of the mails to transmit any weapons of mass destruction to include chemical or biological agents."

Gee, don’t they know how to make us feel better.

We also were directed to the FBI website which instructed us how to handle suspicious letters or packages.

What’s a suspicious letter?

We were on the phone with other community newspapers. Apparently many news organizations were discussing appropriate precautions.

Here at the Trib, I have the first contact with the mail and then the lion’s share goes to editor Tamara Hartman.

"I’m buying us latex gloves," she volunteered.

"What about gas masks?" I retorted.

A weekend later and numerous additional cases of anthrax discovered, our flippancy has turned to caution — the insistence of Lil and a number of phone calls had some influence.

Sure we at the Trib are going to be careful.

The war is uncomfortably close to home.

Not4Publication.com by Dom Nunziato

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Michael Schenkler can be reached at: MSchenkler@queenspress.com