Just finished the article, and wanted to share a few brief thoughts:

Not quite a home run--a triple, I'd say. Dynamite job of presenting the history of 2 digits vs. 4, the scope of the problem, the near total inaction of Clinton and Gore, the potential impact globally, etc... Very well researched and well-written. Highly recommended reading for DGI's.

However, nothing whatsoever about personal or community preparations. A follow-up article would bring home that runner stranded on third.

-- Steve Hartsman (hartsman@ticon.net), December 18, 1998

Answers

Agree with you - but for a mainstream magazine (and I've always admired the Journalism in VF), it's a breath of fresh air. Far better than De Jagers' Scientific American piece, light years ahead of Readers Digest.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), December 18, 1998.

Should wake up quite a few people. The nuclear war thing was a pretty good "hook". Got my attention.

-- Bill (bill@microsoft.com), December 18, 1998.

Steve,

It does a good job in explaining how we got to where we are now, not where we are going. I would agree that a follow on article on personal and community preparation should be strongly encouraged. In fact I tried contacting Vanity Fair through thier web-site's feedback area but it wasn't working: http://www.vf.com/undefined.html -- received: Server Error, This server has encountered an internal error which prevents it from fulfilling your request. The most likely cause is a misconfiguration. Please ask the administrator to look for messages in the server's error log.

Got any ideas on contacting Robert Sam Anson directly?

Thanks, Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 18, 1998.

I have a large family of DGIs. As a last ditch effort to get them to look at the facts as reported I have bought each of them a copy of Vanity Fair . Of 13 heads of households its 2 GI to 11 DGI at this time. I'll post you on the results of my efforts in a few weeks. I think the beautiful almost naked lady will cause them to open their eyes.

-- maggie (maggiem@nehp.com), December 18, 1998.

I just read the Vanity Fair article and the Editor's Letter found on Pg. 18. I was surprised to read his comment that the author "spent five months investigating the Y2K glitch-much of it on the Internet, which is fairly brimming with Y2K nuts..."

Does he mean lunatics or fervent believers?

-- Linda (lconer@Cougarnet.netexp.net), December 19, 1998.

Linda - He means most of us here in Yourdonville, I suspect. Question is: are we fortifying our homes ("wall nuts"), worried about the South America economy ("Brazil nuts"), concerned about catching cold ("cashew nuts"), or simply focussed on storing H20 ("water chest-nuts")? And do most of us go well with fruitcake?

In closing, I reply to the writer of that byline comment using the immortal words of a WWII commander: "Nuts!"

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.com), December 20, 1998.

I have finally gotten a copy of Vanity Fair. Quite frankly, after all the praises that everyone heaped on to the article, I was actually expecting to be disappointed, afraid that maybe I was building up a lot of expectations.

My $0.02 is that it is a fantastic article, absolutely the best mainstream write-up on Y2K ever. About the most serious deficiency that I saw, in addition to what other people have pointed out (e.g., does not really address the What Next aspect) is that it does not mention specific problems in 1999 due to fiscal year rollovers (but does state that a large number of Y2K problems will occur in 1999). Likewise, omits the GPS rollover in Aug 1999 (which I would think would be "close enough" to be considered a Y2K problem). Some things stated were a little loose (e.g., the article implies that pacemakers might have problems, but in fact pacemakers have been given a clean bill of Y2K health [though some of the medical machines that they feed their data into have been found to have Y2K problems]), and I was real surprised to even see the Crouch-Echlin (time dilation) effect on PCs mentioned.

Anywho, on a scale of 1:poor to 10:excellent, I sure would give it a 9.5.

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), December 20, 1998.

The Vanity Fair article made an impression on the reporter below.
It sounds like it sent her over the edge, and she can only cope by making it tongue-in-cheek.

http://www.canoe.ca /TorontoNews/913_n1.htmlX

December 20, 1998
Prepare For Millennium Meltdown

By LIZ BRAUN -- Toronto Sun
Got plans for New Year's Eve?
Good -- it may be the last time you celebrate the event. You've no doubt noticed a rash of articles about Y2K, also known as the millennium bug, the BIG FEAR for the year 2000. What's it all about?
....
In a worst-case scenario, the whole world will go haywire. Everything from the stock market to your microwave will crash. Things will go haywire in the nuclear weapon department, too. In that case, of course, there's nothing to worry about, as the world will be crisped in a matter of minutes and we'll all go out together.

In a medium bad scenario, you could be without heat, water, electricity and food for several weeks. Months, maybe.
What to do? Start stockpiling. Just don't tell anybody, or they'll write you off as a nutcase paranoid. Later, they'll want to come over to borrow a cup of sugar.

Want proof that this a serious concern? The government is already at work trying to solve some of these Y2K problems. The government, you may have noticed, is always a day late and a dollar short. If they're already involved, we're already way past in trouble. Start worrying.

THINGS TO STORE UP ON BEFORE DEC. 31, 1999:
1) Vodka -- duh.
2) Prescriptions. Want to face a world crisis without your Prozac? We think not.
3) Water, cans of food (don't let them freeze), extra medical supplies, tins of caviar, birth control, tobacco, cases of whiskey, tea, coffee, the Colonel's secret recipe, a small roulette wheel, sex toys, chocolate bars, several large emeralds, a couple good lipsticks, gold bars, anything to eat or drink that requires neither refrigeration nor cooking, such as Triscuits, Velveeta, and Bits 'N' Bites. The usual, in other words.
4) Transistor radio. Plenty o' batteries. Portable CD or similar. Oh, what the hell -- buy a generator.
5) Got a working fireplace at your house? Buy firewood now.
6) Get lots of books, board games and a deck of cards. Show them to your children. Explain how these items work.
7) Keep some cash on hand. No bank or banking machine or debit card or cheque or anything else is going to be working.
....

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xxxxxxx xxxx

-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), December 21, 1998.