I came to this board lurking and have really enjoyed the Story Teller's Y2k Chronicles and Anonymous@door mouse.com's story of One man's idea of y2k would be like---Will there be anymore?

-- iceman (icemanltd@webtv.net), July 14, 1999

Answers

i can think of a nice little story mr. iceman. it's called "the iceman cometh."

it's a play written by, i believe, eugene o'neal. i'll keep the title and you and i can re-write the story.

-- corrine l (corrine@iwaynet.net), July 14, 1999.

Here's a scenario about 2000:

http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/mks/yr2000/y2kconf/papers/paper14.htm

"Millennium Tragedy in Urbanville" by Martyn Emery

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), July 14, 1999.

Once upon a time, (not very long ago) there were Kings and Presidents politicians and business people and all of the loyal supporters, that were told about a serious problem with computers.

These leaders were so impressed with their own abilities they decided the problem was not as bad as they were told, (even though some companies worked at getting it minimized for over 7 years) and they ended up waiting so long to get serious about it that a great deal of time was wasted, then they started playing games with spin and information to the point they lost what little credibility they may have had with some people (subjects)

When the problems started to create situations that made it harder to cover with deception, the guilt ridden leaders finally allowed messages of increased preparedness measures to be published, (when the preparedness leaders pressed...),then blamed the smart people that were getting ready, then made noises like these wise people were more of a threat to society than the computer problem, putting laws into effect to make it appear they had to be controlled much tighter (the laws also had to include everybody)

Meanwhile the leaders had some other things they wanted to set up and decide to continue the long term practice they had of using events or situations in a way to get the plans advanced, mostly keeping all they could secret.

Soon they began losing sight of the real enemies (foreign) and wrote plans that began including to larger degrees the "proclaimed enemies within"

Meanwhile the people were not buying it, things were not going well.

What happens next, dear readers, you will not believe.... Even if we wrote it here.

There were of course good people that did try to minimize the computer problems and some companies and groups will do better than others.

The people discovered there are many opinions from individuals from various backgrounds about a global effect of "Y2K", and react in very interesting ways and have a variety of predictions.

The end of the story will reveal itself - only too soon.

-- Living in (the@real.world), July 14, 1999.

How's this old Aesop fable I keep posted on my website? I hope my fellow ants will enjoy it.

www.y2ksafeminnesota.com

The Grasshopper and The Ants

The grasshopper danced, ta ra, ta ra,

There in the summer sun.

The grasshopper played his violin

And had a world of fun.

The ants, meanwhile, were working hard,

And storing food away;

Puffing and panting day and night,

Laboring night and day.

"Foolish drones!" the grasshopper called,

Turning it into a song.

"Can't you see? There's food enough

To eat the whole day long.

"Ta ra," he sang,

"Ta ra," he danced,

"To eat the whole day long."

The grasshopper fiddled his way through June;

He fiddled through July.

He sang and danced all of August away;

September went swiftly by.

Till one cold morning the grasshopper's song

Was heard in the grass no more.

"I don't recall," the grasshopper said,

"Ever being so hungry before.

I say, Mister Ant, it's cold out here,"

The shivering grasshopper said.

He smiled and chirped, "I don't suppose

That you could spare some bread?"

"That's quite correct," the ant replied.

"It's not that we don't care,

But just as you so rightly guessed,

We have no bread to spare.

You laughed at us this summer past,

You called us foolish drones;

But now your songs have died away,

And all we hear are groans.

We worked and saved, we saved and worked,

And now we're snug and warm,

While you may sing and you may dance

All through the winter's storm."

Remember, please, the clever ants:

FIRST we labor; then we dance.

-- MinnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), July 14, 1999.

Hi all and many mea culpas. I have been madly prepping. My Food saver vaccu-form is going overtime while I put all my most loved books in safe packaging for storage. I use it for food too but the idea of using it for books took care of a huge quandry. How to store books in a climate full of mold and mildew? My Food Saver will also do documents. So I have been saving those for posterity as well. I have also been cleaning my closets. No need to hang on to those office clothes anymore. Never did like wearing them much in the first place.

I would very much like to get back to Helen and Co. but have not been sitting still long enough to do it. My days are spent packaging food and books and minding chickens. Sometimes I even work. My nights are spent partying like there's no tommoro. Hot sake will be tough to come by for a while and I doubt any of my fave dance clubs are Y2k compliant. Never thought I would feel poignant about "Boogie Fever" but there you have it. Y2k makes sentimental fools of us all.

-- Story Teller (anonymous@for.now), July 14, 1999.

(WARNING-- Irreverent humor!)

The Grasshopper and the Ant: The Original Version.. The ant busts his tail in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

The Grasshopper and the Ant: The New Liberal Version... It starts out the same but when winter comes the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, and ABC show up and show pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to film of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can it be, in a country of such wealth that this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Then a representative of the NAGB (The National Association of Green Bugs) shows up on Night Line and charges the ant with "Green Bias" and makes the case that the grasshopper is the victim of 30 million years of greenism.

Kermit the frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when he sings "It's Not Easy Being Green."

Bill and Hillary Clinton make a special guest appearance on the CBS evening news and tell a concerned Dan Rather that they will do everything they can for the grasshopper who has been denied the prosperity he deserves by those who benefited unfairly during the summer, or as Bill refers to it, the "Temperatures Of The 80's".

Finally the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity and Anti-Greenism Act" RECTROACTIVE to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and having nothing left to pay his Retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he's in....which just happens to be the ant's old house.... crumbles around him since he doesn't know how to maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow. And on the TV; which the grasshopper bought by selling most of the ant's food, Bill Clinton is standing before a wildly applauding group of Democrats announcing that a new era of "Fairness" has dawned in America.

-- yerfdog (yerfdog@qwestinternet.net), July 16, 1999.

i have a story ending for you . . .

As Emperor Clinton walked by in the parade, a little boy cried out "But we don't have a y2k policy!!" And all of the people standing and watching the parade were embarassed to admit they hadn't seen a y2k policy all along, but didn't want to admit it because they thought they were the only ones to not see it.

but seriously, folks -

iceman, i've got A Survivor's Tale out there to read, also. it's a post-war (as opposed to post-y2k) story, written some years ago, but you might like it (and learn something from it, which is my second goal).

Chapter 1 is located at: http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0013xS

Chapter 2 is located at: http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0015Ms

(if i got those url's right)

hope you like it.

-- Cowardly Lion (cl0001@hotmail.com), July 16, 1999.