Bob McCarty Writes

A job offer, printed on the back of a package, caught my attention as I prepared for work this morning.

Under the bold-print words, BECOME AN EXPERT, was a challenge to learn all about fingerprints and a reference to the package’s side panel. Immediately below that was a set of detailed fingerprint graphics. Still farther down on the package was a web site address that ended with this curious three-letter acronym: CTC.

Instinct told me CTC must stand for “Counter-Terrorism Center” or some other exotic outfit involved in the Global War on Terror. So I decided to look it up online and learned I didn’t miss it by much. The Combating Terrorism Center is located at the United States Military Academy.

Could it be that the folks at West Point are in need of fingerprinting expertise? That seemed strange.

Perhaps the FBI has a field office that, due to the super-sensitive nature of some secret project, is located on the grounds of the service academy. That seemed more plausible.

Unable to contain my excitement about the prospect of becoming an FBI fingerprint expert, I decided to look at the aforementioned side panel.

“That’s strange,” I thought to myself. “Nutrition facts?”

Figuring I looked at the wrong panel, I flipped the package and looked at the panel on the opposite side. There it was! Three lessons in fingerprinting…on the side of my box of General Mills’ Cinnamon Toast Crunch (a.k.a., “CTC”) cereal.

Sigh. To learn more about it, click on the graphic below.