A near miss indeed, but it has left a mark

We're still in the jitter phase.

It happens every time terrorism comes close again, the way it did last weekend with that explosive SUV in Times Square. Thankfully, the alleged bomber was incompetent. Thankfully, nobody was harmed. But the vehicle was packed, parked and smoking, which is far too close to disaster for any sane person to be comfortable with.

But even the near misses leave some shrapnel in our heads. In the days and weeks that follow, it doesn't take much to leave us all running for cover.

Late Wednesday, the RFK Triborough Bridge was closed for hours after a man was seen fleeing an abandoned U-Haul truck. The bomb squad was called. The truck smelled like gasoline. But the best the cops could figure was that the vehicle was stolen - not about to blow up. Maybe the driver got nervous, that's all.

He wouldn't be the only one.

At midday on Friday, the core of Times Square - Broadway and Seventh Avenue, 44th to 47th Street - was turned into an instant frozen zone and cleared of all vehicles and pedestrians. The culprit this time? An unattended cooler with water bottles and some books inside.

The yellow tape went up. The bomb squad was called. And nobody went anywhere for two solid hours.

The jitter phase.

Reports of suspicious packages are so common in New York - 90 to 100 on a regular day - they can actually be tracked statistically. They're up 30 percent in the past week, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said. "To a certain extent," Kelly said "people are becoming more suspicious, more vigilant, and that results in more calls."

Kelly's an expert in pattern recognition. He has been through this one enough times to know.

"When you have a major event, the reports of suspicious packages will go up," the police commissioner shrugged.

ASKED AND UNANSWERED: After the real-cop-fake-cop "Jesse" mix-up in Bellmore, will movie actors begin wearing the "color of the day" the way undercovers do? . . . LI schools banning Silly Bandz? Why not just ban flicking the popular rubber bracelets across homeroom? . . . "100 Endangered Whales Spotted Near Block Island"? Wait a second - if 100 of them were spotted, how endangered are they? . . . The Nassau Police Department is 85 years old? Whatever happened to 20 and out? . . . He didn't poison Sydney, the comatose dog? Do we finally have some good news about the East Hampton beached whale? . . . Vests, badges, handcuffs, radios - and Miranda-rights cards? Shouldn't Emmanuel Taverez's alleged fake-cop ring at least get points for accurate accessorizing? . . . With high-tech ShotSpotters being installed on some of Nassau County's meanest streets, what will the next $1 million buy? An eavesdropping system that detects loud grumbling about county spending? . . . Will cigarette kingpin Rodney Morrison do his gun-possession time in a no-smoking prison? . . . Shooting up just in time for summer - the average gallon of gas on Long Island - up 6.6 cents to $3.137.

E-mail ellis@henican.com

Follow at Twitter.com/henican