Well, T'is the Day Before Christmas, and it's probably a good
thing that you're dicking around on the Web rather than
stressing over last-minute XMas shopping like I am. Enjoy
it while you can, because next week is going to SUCK.
After tomorrow, the Great Unwashed will FINALLY start concentrating en masse
about Y2K. There's only 7 days left, after all, which is just on the horizon of
America's attention span. And, HELL, the nightly news isn't going to be talking
about anything else for a while.
Despite the fact that the media's emphasis for "last-minute plans" for Y2K is on
finding a good party or restaurant to welcome the new year, I suspect that a lot
more people will start listening to that queasy feeling in their bellies instead
and go on a survival-buying spree. Water, dry food, gasoline, generators,
cooking fuel, etc. will probably be harder to find next week than they will in
Feb 2000. I bet a lot of people who normally wouldn't care are going to get
irate about 5-day waiting periods for guns and bans on sales of ammo around New
Year's. You can't get armed before Y2K, folks. Just in case you were wondering.
I've had plans for about 18 months to write an article entitled "Panic Now and
Beat the Rush -- A Procrastinator's Guide to Y2K." Well, it's too late for that.
Panic now and JOIN the rush is more like it. Those folks who've got any brains
in their heads are all huddling in mountain cabins listening to their
hand-cranked shortwaves and smugly Reading the Signs. The rest of us have got to
deal with the shitstorm, I guess. Ugh! See you at the riots, eh?
