Welcome to America: Home of the Scalpers, Land of the eBay Account. Oh, and You Don't Know Nuttin'. You Didn't See Nuttin'

The flag raised by three firemen over the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 – captured in an iconic image by Thomas Franklin for The Record in Bergen County, New Jersey – is missing.

Actually, it was switched with another flag quite some time ago -- with the media remaining unaware -- and may never be found, writes David Friend in his much-awaited study of photographs that emerged from that catastrophe, to be published by Farrar, Strauss and Giroux in September. . . .

It’s quite a yarn, as Friend suggests that the flag vanished within three days of its raising, . . . .

There is some evidence that one or more firefighters turned over the larger flag -- or as some call it, Flag #2 -- to the Navy for its use just after 9/11 so they could safeguard the original, but there are no chief suspects or any proof of this. An unnamed former high-ranking member of the NYPD tells Friend, referring to his fire department counterparts, "Anybody tells you they don't know where the flag is, they're full of shit."

A former NYPD official suspects that when the statute of limitations runs out soon the flag-napper will step forward “and sell it.”

Apparently, at one point in this sordid tale, the rightful owners of the flag, Shirley Dreifus and her husband, asked the City of New York to provide her with her property so she could display it at a fund-raising event for firefighters on her yacht. The city couldn't find it. Ms. Dreifus sued them to inspire them to look harder. When they still couldn't find it, she dropped the suit. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, when asked about this, said he didn't know where the flag was, adding, "I don't know where Osama bin Laden is, either."

I'm not sure what to make of that. Is he implying that the City of New York had Osama bin Laden in its possession, paraded him around for all the world to see, and then, misplaced him? That doesn't seem right. I would've remembered that.

I guess, we should all just be thankful that as a response, Mayor Bloomberg didn't grab his crotch, say, "I've got your fucking flag right here," and then spit.

We don't appreciate the little miracles each day holds, is what I'm saying.