Alistair Cook, Letter From America (he's a GI)

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Tuesday, January 5, 1999 Published at 10:22 GMT

From the BBC (London), January 1999:

America, 1998

Then out of nowhere comes the ominous recall of that frozen food manufacturer and the day last spring when the supervisor was going his rounds and noticed something he'd never seen before. The tags on a big shipment of food that was just going out, they all said the same thing: the food was 40 years old. In fact the tags said that this sample of the firm's manufactured food ante-dated the founding of the firm - ridiculous. Still, to be on the safe side, they'd better throw the whole shipment out, which they did.

And that, of course, was for that firm the first threatening sign that struck the rest of us months later - unforgivably late if you remember that Arthur C Clarke warned us about it 10 years ago - the simple colossal error in the making of computers which by an oversight were never programmed to handle a four digit year. Same for microchips: 1993 is 93, 1998 is 98 - but no 2000, they go back to 1900.

Well you all know by now and I trust your grocer and banker and food makers know and are busy busy. As the Senator said - Senator Bennett from Utah - who first roused the Congress to the oncoming disaster: "Is the world coming to an end? I don't know but I do know Y2K is coming and we have to deal with the problem coldly and intelligently and efficiently. Don't panic but don't spend a lot of time asleep either."

Cut, pasted and snipped by

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), February 10, 1999

Answers

Git, could you find the source of this quote for me?

thanks, scott

-- Scott Johnson (scojo@yahoo.com), February 10, 1999.


Alistair Cooke..."Ominous tales pending 2000"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/letter_from_america/newsid_1520 00/152817.stm

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), February 10, 1999.


That particular bit came from:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/letter_from_america/newsid_2480 00/248167.stm

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), February 10, 1999.


Has Alistair Cook made any Y2K documentaries? With his skills and persuasion, he could help that massive television audience awaken and prepare.

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), February 10, 1999.

No TV work, far as I know. Cook is 90 and TV programmes are probably a bit too strenuous for him now. Hell, WATCHING TV is too strenuous for me, most of the time.

-- Tired Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), February 11, 1999.


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