The winner is: Man Monk - entitled to take Mcdonald Douglas's patent away from them. Winning entry:

In about 1967, at Occidental Life Insurance Company... (I think that this "patent" is a crock!)

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), November 02, 1999.

Maria got it right about when it originated, but failed to say when she first saw it. Her entry:

Since the dawn of computers. The current way of doing business is a form of windowing with 00 as the pivot or base year. It works for one hundred years and any number greater than 00 is assumed to be 19XX.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), November 02, 1999.

-- ng (cantprovideemail@none.com), November 03, 1999