The offices of The Topps Company (producer of sports, entertainment, and confectionary products) are located at One Whitehall Street, about seven blocks from the World Trade Center.  We now have a graphic description of just how close that was from a newspaper story by Cox News Service and the Milwaukee Journal, quoting Topps VP Operations John Perillo :

'John Perillo was sitting in his Manhattan office when the second plane that was about to crash into the World Trade Center flew by.  'It flew right past my office window, about a football field away,' he said.  Moments later he heard the crash and then felt his 24-story building shake.'

We still have no news on the safety of any of the Topps employees.  We'll continue to post updated info on what's happening in New York as we get it. 

We also received a couple of attack-related notices from industry companies.  Avalanche Press sent us a notice that said in part: 'Out of respect for the victims and survivors, we request that you withdraw from sale any copies of our games Airlines and Airlines2 for a period of at least 30 days.   Avalanche Press is in no way engaging in a recall of these products, but we are sure you all understand that sale of these games is not appropriate at this time.  Sales Manager Marcelo Figueroa is the contact for questions -- squidguru@adelphia.net .

We were also notified that the grand opening celebrations for Japanese retailer OmochaBox's first U.S. store (see 'Japanese Retailer Invests in Digital Manga') have been cancelled, although the store will open as scheduled.