What Color is Your Times Square Bombing Bicycle?

There's always that scene in any sort of serial killer film or TV show in which the police and the press are fighting over what bits of info to release, and inevitably some "communication" occurs between the perp and the media. You see the lead investigator at a press conference talking about how much of a "coward" the suspect is for not showing his face. These scenarios are what came to mind when I saw Michael Daly's column in today's Daily News, an open letter to the bomber who blew up a Times Square recruiting station last month. My first thought was, "holy crap, this is straight out of a movie." It's the Son of Sam to Breslin letters in reverse.

Daly's question to the bomber is "why?": Why did he/she do it? Why the bicycle? Is it the same bomber who hit the Mexican Consulate last October or the building housing the British Consulate in 2005?

My question to Daly is: Why are you asking these questions now? The Hollywood screenwriter in me goes through all these elaborate scenarios: they have a profile on the guy, they're going to draw him out through the press, etc. However, if you follow the principle that the simplest explanation is always the most plausible, chances are it's just pegged to the NYPD re-releasing a photo of the bike in the hopes of getting some more information from the public. The photo, by the way, clears up any controversy from last month about the color of the bicycle. The Post had correctly described the bike as a "blue Ross ten-speed" while the News just described it as "red," with no brand. Today, the Post describes it as a Ross and a ten-speed while the News just calls it a "10-speed Ross."

Guess they're no longer seeing red.