Chaniqua inherited her honey-colored eyes and her reddish brown hair from her Cherokee grandfather. While she may have been born and raised in Flatbush, Brooklyn, she prefers Queens. Chaniqua currently works at a cellular phone store in Astoria.

"I like it so much better here," said Chaniqua about Astoria. "Just walking around, it is so much more peaceful. The people are so much more laidback." Chanique and her family are thinking about moving to Jamaica.

In Astoria she frequently shops on Steinway at Victoria’s Secret and Old Navy. She dines at Latin Cabana, where she gorges on the Spanish and Cuban food. Chaniqua starts her day with tea and breakfast at Café Dkaka, which was a recent backdrop for a music video for Rapper Fabulous.

Like the rest of the City because of the recent events, Chaniqua has come to appreciate life even more. The day of the attack, she panicked for her uncle who worked at the World Trade Center and her brother, a police officer.

"Before he went to work, he went to vote," said Chaniqua. Her uncle got to work later than usual and saw the buildings on fire so hightailed it home and hugged his wife. After hours of being unreachable, Chaniqua’s brother finally picked up the phone.

Chaniqua is currently taking a break from New York Technical College where she majors in Human Services and early childhood education. Her goal is to teach in low-income schools and counsel troubled kids.

It was a guy handing out fliers on the street that got Chaniqua interested in modeling. She auditioned and got on Promfest, an annual cable fashion show. It all came naturally to her as if she was born for it. Since then she has done fashion shows for BlackExpo, Circle of Sister and Hair of Perfection. She sees herself doing FUBU ads or appearing in Essence, Cosmopolitan, or even appearing in one of the Old Navy commercials.

"I’d drop everything for modeling," but she admits, "even if I became the next supermodel, I’d still want to have some type of education."

Yet Chaniqua said, "I’ll give anyone a chance as long as I’m single and as long as he approaches me nicely. "I’m not a woman who likes thugs. I like a man who has class." But he does have to be streetwise.

Is America prepared for a biological attack? Who knows, but Queens straphangers might be. With fear of biological agents in the attack, stores have run out of supplies of gas masks. But look no further than your local train. Common peddlers that sell trinkets like batteries for $1 have promoted themselves to ad hoc suppliers of anti-terrorist warfare equipment. A QConfer on an E train spotted some guy selling gas masks at $49 apiece. The underground salesman touted, "You’re going to need them." We're told they looked authentic just like the photos.

The nation fears the worst with possible attack of chemical and several incidents of biological warfare — anthrax. But some might recall that Anthrax was started by a bunch of metal-head kids in Flushing 20 years ago.

It’s like a second coming for the thrash-heavy metal band Anthrax. The band is not exactly thrilled with sharing their name with the acute infectious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium bacillus anthracis. But they are getting recognition. The band is on a nationwide tour with Judas Priest and it’s sold out.

On Anthrax’s official website Anthrax.com, lead singer Scott Ian, 37, wrote in a letter, "In the twenty years we’ve been known as ‘Anthrax,’ we never thought the day would come that our name would actually mean what it really means. When I learned about anthrax in my senior year of biology class, I thought the name sounded ‘metal.’

"Everyone in my neighborhood had a band with an ‘er,’ like ‘Ripper’ or ‘Deceiver’ or ‘Killers’ and I wanted to be different. ‘Anthrax’ sounded cool, aggressive, and nobody knew what it was. Until a few years ago most people thought we’d made it up. Even our album, ‘Spreading the Disease’ was just a play on the name. We were spreading music to the masses.... Now in the wake of events, our name symbolizes paranoia and death. Suddenly our name is not so cool."

Ian joked that they were going to change their name to something friendlier, "Basket Full of Puppies."

But Anthrax won’t change its name, "not because it would be a pain in the ass, but because we hope that no further negative events will happen and it won’t be necessary."

The band got together in 1981 and played their first gig in the basement of St. John’s Episcopal Church on Sanford Avenue in Flushing.

While Queens trick-or-treaters wait patiently for Halloween to arrive, mega-bookseller Barnes & Noble has already begun to sell Christmas cards in their Bay Terrace store. The store has a large variety of cards for sale, including cards with snowmen, Santa Claus, reindeer, jingle bells, and the World Trade Center.

That’s right, the World Trade Center. For a high price of $23 per box, you too can say ‘deck the halls’ with cards depicting the site where 6,000 people lost their lives only a few months earlier. The Twin Towers are not hidden in the background of these cards — they are large and the clear feature attraction. Cards featuring Santa Claus in a sleigh in front of the Towers are available, as well as cards depicting a snowy winter wonderland with a backdrop of the Towers and the rest of the Manhattan skyline. Imagine losing a loved one in the Trade Center attack and receiving one of those cards in the mail?

Who would buy and send Christmas cards that act as such clear reminders of the horrific sorrow that was inflicted on the City on Sept. 11? Apparently, a lot of people. On Oct. 8, the cards were in the Bay Terrace Barnes & Noble. Three days later, a Barnes & Noble worker told a QConf reporter that the cards were sold out, but the store was expecting another shipment soon. No need to worry. The overpriced death Christmas cards will be back on shelves before you can say, ‘inappropriate.’