I don't think we've hit full swine flu hysteria yet. But this is close. The Associated Press reported last night that two drunk dudes flying in from Cancun caused a swine flu panic by the time they landed at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. The AP writes:

"The commotion began when AirTran Flight 85 from Cancun, Mexico, radioed ahead to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport that two passengers were had nausea and fever, said airport spokesman Jonathan Dean. When it landed, the airport's fire and rescue department met it.

The two men were isolated and examined, said David Paulson, director of communications for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said they simply had too much to drink.

They did not have respiratory distress that is a symptom of swine flu, Paulson said.

They refused treatment, and they and the other passengers were allowed to leave the plane after being detained less than an hour."

Maryland, the District and Virginia have no reported swine-flu cases so far. That hasn't stopped a lot of people from crashing local Emergency Rooms.

At 4 a.m., I woke up to the sounds of a man shouting outside my window. This is not unusual. I live at 16th and Irving Streets NW. There's always somebody shouting, joking, cranking music from their car stereo. The better stuff: sounds of puking.

None of this I particularly mind. Except for this man. He got into his car and seemed to be speeding up and down Mount Pleasant Street. It sounded like he was crashing into things. I could be totally wrong. It was 4 a.m. But what I'm not wrong about is what he was screaming at the top of his lungs.

I heard the man scream "Nigger!"

And "Fucking Nigger!"

And "Do you fucking hear me?"

I heard him loud and clear. It was scary. And it was 4 a.m. I thought about calling 911. I decided that if he said the N-Word one more time, I'd dial. The man did. I called. Thankfully, the dispatcher was nice and did not view this as a waste of time or some violation of 1st Amendment rights. She said I wasn't the first to call.

By the time the police arrived, I'm pretty sure the man was long gone. There's nothing on the listserv about the incident. Does anybody have more info on this crazy scene?