I remember hearing a joke around that time - "Who is the happiest man in America right now? - Gary Condit." Condit was being tossed and gored in the media for his supposed role in the disappearance of the intern with whom he had an affair. It was all forgotten pretty quickly that September. Apparently he had nothing to do with the intern's disappearance and murder, but it took years for that to be established.

On September 10, 2001, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld revealed that the Pentagon had lost $2.3 trillion from its budget. That figure has now grown to $6.5 trillion and counting.

I just read it for the first time and was surprised to learn that he was announcing massive cuts to military spending, with base closures, consolidating departments between branches, eliminating acquisition teams, and outsourcing things like janitorial work. That, and better tracking of where the money is going. It was actually a refreshing speech and the exact opposite of the warmonger Rumsfeld would come to be known as.

https://web.archive.org/web/20100301161721/http://www.defens...

"There's a myth, sort of a legend, that money enters this building and disappears, like a bright light into a black hole, never to be seen again. In truth, there is a real person at the other end of every dollar, a real person who's in charge of every domain, and that means that there will be real consequences from, and real resistance to, fundamental change."

Thank you. That's a great site!

Infamously, here in the UK someone employed by the government had a similar thought and issued a memo that day saying that it was "a good day to bury bad news". Unfortunately for her, the memo was leaked.

Donnie Darko’s release in October 2001 was very quiet after they pulled all advertising because a plane crash plays a prominent role in the plot.

The ending of the MGS2 video game (released in November of 2001) was butchered, since it involved a massive submarine crashing into New York City and Konami feared the game could be seen as a criticism of America. In the cutscenes that survived the butchering, you can see vestigial remnants of the original; most notably flagpoles without American flags on them. The ending of the game has the "villain" explain his desire to free America from the AI that personified of the military industrial complex. When he died, an American flag was meant to symbolically fall on his body.

Supposedly Propeller Arena on the Dreamcast was cancelled over the 9/11 attacks, though I suspect the game was already struggling or being killed for other reasons. There's a leak of the fairly-complete game and it's a hell of a lot of fun. My friends and I have burned a few evenings over the years on it. One of a handful of multiplayer games that we've loved and have no newer replacements for[1] so we have to bust out older consoles or emulation to play them.

[1] some others: Bushido Blade 2 (Playstation), Hunter Hunted (PC), Return Fire (Playstation), Blur (Playstation 3), kind of Perfect Dark (N64) which in many ways remains unmatched though of course there are many modern shooters; and then there are other games that do have modern sequels but we much prefer the older ones and they're rapidly getting harder to play because they're from early-ish 3D consoles and don't get re-releases so they won't compete with their own sequels (Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, for instance)

Is that a regional change or a global change? Did the Japanese release retain the original ending?

Unfortunately it was a global change. MGS2 released in the US first, Japan a few weeks later. I'm not sure if that played a roll in any way.

Another movie: Big Trouble, based on the novel of the same name by Dave Barry, with a big ensemble cast starring Tim Allen, Stanley Tucci, among others, was delayed getting to theaters, its marketing budget slashed, and its run in theaters shortened because of a prominent subplot about sneaking a bomb through airport security.

Chandra Levy's murder was front page news until the attacks

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandra_Levy

Also a good podcast episode about the case and investigation

https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/murdered-chandra-levy/

No wonder I never heard that they solved it:

>Following a series of investigative reports by The Washington Post in 2008, the MPD followed up and finally obtained a warrant, on March 3, 2009, to arrest Ingmar Guandique, the illegal immigrant from El Salvador identified and dismissed by the MPDC eight years earlier.

It's still unsolved. The main witness on Guandique's trial was found to be very unreliable, so the case was dismissed.

Sounds like a bad hombre.

The company I left graduate to cofound based on my invention was scheduled to launch that day with what would have been a major media event we'd planned for months.

Here's a brief history for anyone interested: http://joshuaspodek.com/videos-invention-company-founded.

While we didn't face consequences on the scale of people in the towers, the Pentagon, who fought overseas, and first responders, it devastated us.

On the morning of September 11, I stepped onto the stage at a trade show to launch my new product. Over the course of the presentation, a buzz developed, and people started standing up and leaving. By the end of my speech, the trade show had been cancelled and everyone was going home. Needless to say, the product was not successful.

Can we ask what it was? I'm curious to know if it would have gained traction if it had been launched a year later.

The Alt-rock band They Might Be Giants had a long awaited album "Mink Car" released on the unfortunate date of September 11, 2001.

It was also the release date of Slayer's ominously-titled "God Hates Us All".

https://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Slayer/God_Hates_Us_Al...

Same with Bob Dylan’s Love and Theft.