Fifteen Minutes

In Yakima, Wash., the owners of a Shell station panicked last Tuesday night in wake of the New York and D.C. crises and started charging as much as $7 per gallon for gas. The freaking out lasted nearly

40 minutes.

Thinking of joking about carrying bombs on planes? Dont. A South African man was kidding with a stewardess and now is facing jail time of up to 25 years, or

13,140,000 minutes.

Gordon Sinclairs The Americans has been making the rounds on e-mail lists. What a lot of people dont realize is that he wrote it in 1973, so its been extolling the virtues of our great land for

14,716,800 minutes.

The Coup, an L.A.-based hip hop group, had planned to release their upcoming album on Nov. 6 with a cover depicting an exploding World Trade Center. After the first plane hit the WTC, the company changed plans within

45 minutes.

After holding off selling firearms on Tuesday, Kmart Corp. resumed sales the Wednesday, so Americans could get their rifles after about

1,440 minutes.

Britney Spears, Mya, Destinys Child and other hot pop groups are joining Michael Jackson in his efforts to record a We Are the World-esque song to raise relief funds for victims families. Hes been working on it officially since Sunday, or

5,760 minutes.

Before unveiling their new lines, designers and models halted London Fashion Week on Monday for a silence that lasted

1 minute.

After being cancelled in the wake of last weeks tragedy, the Emmys have been rescheduled for Oct. 7. The only other time the Emmys have been postponed was for the 1978 announcement of the Camp David Accords. Jimmy Carter held up the ceremony by

30 minutes.

All four major networks are joining forces for an unprecedented industrywide telethon Friday night. It will probably air for

120 minutes.

National Airport, also known as Reagan National, will probably not reopen for a really insanely long time (if ever). From the runway to the White House, the flight is

3/4 minutes.

Fear struck Harvard Square directly. After a bomb threat last Friday, Holyoke Center was evacuated for about

15 minutes.

The bin Laden money is being put to good use here for fellowships. Harvard postponed the deadlines for fellowships for

0 minutes.

When the stock market reopened Monday, the Dow dropped a dismal 684 points. The stock exchange had been closed for six days, or

8,640 minutes.

David Letterman was the first late night host to get back on the air Monday night. His monologue, an uncharacteristically serious talk about current events, lasted about

10 minutes.

The last three cast members on Big Brother are still trapped in their house with very little information on what happened last week. They will not be able to see any visuals until they leave the house after the finale on Thursday, set to air for

60 minutes.