Wish I could do a link.

Paraguay-----Martial law!!! etc.etc.

They just started and the team quit!!!

Is anyone else starting to feel the chill??

-- D.B. (dciinc@aol.com), October 10, 1999

Answers

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/y2k/y2k.htm Paraguay Is Playing Catch-Up on Y2K

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, October 10, 1999; Page A1

ASUNCION, Paraguay  First the computers will crash, bringing down the electrical grid, the water system and the telephone network.

Then, nearly 200,000 government workers will discover the state-run bank that prints their paychecks has been crippled by technological glitches. Finally, a day or two later, crowds will riot and loot, forcing the government to declare martial law.

To Walter Schafer Paoli, the Paraguayan government's year 2000 generalissimo, this is no science-fiction plot. Such bedlam, he says, is quite possible during the first days of January in this poor, landlocked South American country sandwiched between Argentina and Brazil.

His manifest fear stems from a simple, alarming fact: The government has been woefully late in tackling the Y2K computer glitch. Most government agencies here only recently began the often-protracted chore of fixing their systems.

And to make matters worse, members of a presidential commission set up in the spring to coordinate the repair efforts quit en masse last month, complaining that they were never given offices, a budget or payment for their services.

Paraguay is just one of many developing countries that have been tardy in dealing with the Y2K bug. From sub-Saharan Africa to Central America, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, many nations have only just started to vigorously address the glitch, raising the possibility of disruptions in basic services.

Although the impact likely will be cushioned by the fact that such nations still have legions of people in rural areas whose lives remain untouched by electronics, failing to squash the bug in time could affect millions of others who live in cities where computer systems control power distribution, telephones and other crucial government operations.

"Developing countries have a lot left to do to immunize themselves from the Y2K bug," said Bruce McConnell, director of the International Y2K Cooperation Center, a U.N.-sponsored organization that is working with 170 nations on the glitch.

Among the laggards, though, Paraguay is particularly far behind, according to some analysts. "Paraguay is an outlier," said a high- level technology specialist at an international agency in Washington. "It is definitely one of the worst cases."

Too Little, Too Late

With the new year less than three months away, business and government leaders here worry that even with a newfound commitment to eradicating the millennium bug, there is not enough time left to make the necessary patches.

"It will not be possible for us to fix everything before January," said Schafer, a former computer magazine publisher who was tapped three weeks ago to replace the disbanded commission. "We need to prepare for problems throughout the country  with the telephones, electricity, water and other services our government provides." Given that assessment, most foreign corporations and governments aren't counting on anything come January.

Inside one of Citibank's buildings in Asuncion, workers are installing a room-sized cistern that can hold enough water to keep sinks running and toilets flushing for two weeks. The firm's branch offices are being equipped with cellular and satellite phones as well as electrical generators, which will be refueled by a fleet of oil trucks hired by the bank.

The local office of DHL Worldwide Express has ordered fold-out cots in case the courier service's employees are unable to travel to and from work by public transportation. A local bank has set up an elaborate plan to deal with a falla total  a total failure of electricity, telephones and water. Even the U.S. Embassy is girding for the worst, increasing its stockpile of MREs, those tear-open, ready-to-eat meals originally made for soldiers.

"We're not planning to take anything for granted," said Rafael Schvartzman, who runs DHL's operations here.

Because Paraguay exports only a few products outside Latin America  largely textiles, cattle and soybeans  Y2K problems here likely will not have a direct or immediate economic effect on the United States. But some diplomats here worry that glitch-related chaos could spill across Paraguay's borders, destabilizing the nation's fragile relations with Brazil and Argentina.

In its final act before disbanding, the Y2K commission sent a confidential report to the United Nations saying that the government was only 20 percent along with its repairs and that, given the current pace, it would not be finished until March. Schafer recently revised that progress report downward, pegging the government at 15 percent readiness and at a "high risk" of failure.

Of particular concern to him is the computer system used by the National Police to process crime reports, track national identity cards and communicate with Interpol. The police only recently discovered that the system needs new hardware and software to operate properly in the new year, but the manufacturer, International Business Machines Corp., responded that it will take three months just to get the necessary equipment to Paraguay, Schafer said. "It will be impossible to fix this in time," he predicted during an interview last week.

Another worry for many here is the state-owned bank that prints paychecks for the 196,000 government workers and provides loans to thousands of small businesses. The bank needs to repair and test 7 million lines of programming code, a task that specialists say will be difficult to complete before January. "It is impossible," Schafer stated matter-of-factly, raising his hands in resignation.

At the goverment-run telephone company, 16 of 24 switching centers  buildings with stacks of computers and mazes of wiring that route calls  have not yet been upgraded for Y2K. Installing new software in the centers will not be completed until late November, leaving a scant four or five weeks to test for problems.

As a consequence, Schafer said, it makes sense to plan for martial law. "If we do not have electric power, it will be impossible to give water to the citizens," he said. "Now imagine if the telephone is down too. This scenario is possible. And if that happens, what is your alternative? Martial law. There is no other choice."

Then, he paused and leaned across the table. "This," he whispered, "is a catastrophe."

Taking a Back Seat

How did Paraguay get into this mess?

The answer, say people here, is a confluence of woes that have long plagued this and other Third World countries: political turmoil, economic collapse, corruption and a general lack of technological awareness.

The country's former president, Raul Cubas, last year budgeted a paltry $500,000 for the government to address the glitch, which stems from the fact that some computers, as well as microchips in many electronic devices, were programmed to recognize only the last two digits of a year, assuming that the first two would be 1 and 9. On Jan. 1, unprepared machines will understand the year "00" not as 2000 but as 1900, potentially causing them to shut down or stop working properly.

Cubas decreed that government agencies should test their computer systems for Y2K problems and deliver a status report to the finance minister. But with no central coordination, only a handful ever followed through.

By early this year, what little energy was being devoted to the issue quickly took a back seat to a more immediate crisis. In March, Cubas was forced to resign and flee to Brazil after his political mentor, a former general, allegedly ordered the assassination of his vice president and the shooting of dozens of student protesters.

Two months later, the new president, Luis Gonzalez Macchi, formed the Y2K commission and ordered it to resume the repair effort. The group surveyed the situation and, a few months later, announced that it would need $17 million to pay for the fixes.

Getting that much money proved impossible in Paraguay, a largely agricultural country of 5.4 million people that has been racked by a severe recession for the past two years. The government, with an overall annual budget of only $1.2 billion, didn't have the means to write a lump-sum check. Bureaucrats in each agency did not want to cede authority for their computers to a commission. And critics questioned whether some of the group's members, who have computer consulting businesses, were trying to steer the funds to their firms.

"They wanted too much power," said Cesar A. Ferreira, president of Performance Global Systems, a computer firm that works directly with several government agencies. "They wanted to control the purchase of every computer."

Commission members contend that they were not power hungry or thirsty to micromanage, just convinced that central coordination was needed to speed up the repair work. But after five months without a budget or office space, the frustrated members sent off their report to the United Nations and quit in September.

Left to pick up the pieces was Schafer, the group's technical coordinator. A reserved middle-aged man who favors dark suits and wears the same gold-colored Y2K lapel pin as White House year 2000 czar John Koskinen, Schafer now finds himself working 16-hour days, seven days a week.

But he still hasn't been given an official government office or car. He works out of his old computer magazine digs, a converted kitchen with broken floor tiles, peeling plaster and mismatched furniture. He shuttles himself around the crowded streets of Asuncion in a battered, early-1980s Honda Civic.

His Y2K strategy is straightforward: There is not enough time to finish the needed fixes, so the government instead should devote its energies to developing comprehensive contingency plans for malfunctioning computers.

"It's too late," he said. "The best thing we can do now is to be fully prepared for failures."

What's to Go Wrong?

At the National Electric Administration, chief information officer Francisco Santacruz bristled at suggestions that there will be power outages in the new year.

Swiveling his computer monitor toward a reporter, he scrolled through the utility's latest status report. The giant Itiapu hydroelectric plant, which supplies three-quarters of Paraguay's electricity, is more than 90 percent complete with its repair work, he said.

The old billing system has been replaced with one that is fully Y2K ready. And, he added, 95 percent of the equipment used to distribute electricity is devoid of microchips; the other 5 percent has been certified as glitch-free by the manufacturers.

"If people say there will be no electricity, they don't know what they are talking about," Santacruz growled. "We have very little automation."

Schafer said he doesn't believe the electric company's sanguine predictions. He argues that the utility needs to test all its systems itself, not rely on the assurances of manufacturers.

Skeptics of Schafer's assessments contend that the millennium bug won't sting Paraguay all that severely because many tasks that are computerized in other parts of the world are still done by hand here. The country's social security system, for example, still uses ledger books and index cards to track information.

"This is not the United States," computer consultant Ferreira said. "We don't have computers everywhere."

Others, however, maintain that businesses and government agencies in Paraguay, through foreign grants and loans, have been able to buy and grow reliant on plenty of computers, a fact borne out by a walk through an Asuncion shopping center. More than half the stores at the trendy Del Sol mall use PCs to ring up purchases. And in most cases, store managers said their machines have not been repaired.

"There are some here who believe that they will not be as affected as more technologically developed countries," DHL's Schvartzman said. "The truth is that there is a lot of dependence on technology here. They just aren't aware of it."

) 1999 The Washington Post Company

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@Y2KOK.ORG), October 10, 1999.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-10/10/204l-101099-idx.html
-- link (link@link.too), October 10, 1999.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-10/10/204l-101099-idx.html

-- link (link@link.too), October 10, 1999.

(polly rant mode ON)

So what? Who needs Paraguay anyway? I'm sure we don't trade much with them, and they're far enough away that refugees can't get here to bother us. And since Y2K problems CAN'T really be anything more than an inconvenience, they'll have all this fixed in, oh, 2 or 3 hours. That right-wing doomer rag the Washington Post needs to quit the fear-mongering!

(polly rant mode OFF)

Polly denial aside, people all over the world are going to DIE because of Y2K... The only real question is HOW MANY???

-- Nabi (nabi7@yahoo.com), October 10, 1999.

Truly ominous

and truly sad.

-- no talking please (breadlines@soupkitchen.gov), October 10, 1999.

Incremental acclimatization. First Paraguay, then the World.

-- Spidey (in@jam.river), October 10, 1999.

This was in this Sunday's WP. Comment after the block.

Ready for the millennium. Three months before the fateful tick to Jan. 1, 2000, officials say all but three of the county's 317 computer systems are good to go. The years-long compliance effort, held up as a model on "60 Minutes," costs $47.2 million, or $56 per county resident. The District is spending $120 million--and its Y2K effort is mired in confusion. Fairfax County plans to spend $3.4 million. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-10/10/223l-101099- idx.html

So, I went to the the Census site to see what comparables would look like with regard to population in Fairfax and Montgomery counties. Just using population I found that Montgomery Co. has a population as of the last census of 757,067 and Fairfax Co. has a population of 818,584. Given that similarity what accounts for the disparity in budgets for CDC? Got me. Maybe someone else has some information which would help me make sense of this. Cheers, AGF

-- AGF (dracon301@aol.com), October 10, 1999.

I can hear the moron Flint now: "But can you DEFINE panic? Huh? And WHEN it will occur? Huh? I thought not! Milne blah blah blah 'a' blah blah blah in his mouth blah blah blah nobody knows blah blah blah ...

-- a (a@a.a), October 10, 1999.

IT Manager: "You need to get this done!!!Y2K won't wait!!"

Paraguayan: "Si Senor...but eet ees time for dee siesta..."

IT Manager: "But...but...theres only a short time left! 20 days and counting!!!"

Paraguayan: "Ees no beeg deel...Manyana Senor....ZZZZZZZZ"

IT Manager:(on cell phone)"Hello, Southwest Airlines? I'd like to book three dozen seats for December 23rd non stop to New York please"

The End.....or to be continued....

-- Billy Boy (Rakkasn@yahoo.com), October 10, 1999.

AGF,

In regard to the disparity in budgets you ask...

"Maybe someone else has some information which would help me make sense of this."

Well, I don't know about Fairfax County, but we all know that DC is full of lying, cheating, stealing bureaucrats and pollyticians. The $120 million they got was never spent on computers, but was used to line their pockets. Maybe their idea of fixing Y2K is to buy a condo in Cost Rica and charter a Learjet getaway on Dec. 31. Yeah, they had so much fun with the $120 mil that they asked for another $68 million. How much of that will be spent on fixing computers? Oh, probably somewhere in the neighborhood of say... $3.4 million?

Here's a recent article about the "confusion" that the Washington Post is referring to in the quote from your post:

snip

"But district officials said they need additional federal funds to reach the finish line and recently filed a request for $68 million in additional funding with the Office of Management and Budget.

Officials from the General Accounting Office, however, took issue both with D.C.'s timeline for Year 2000 compliance and its inability to track the funds the district has received to date.

Although the district has made notable progress with Year 2000 fixes, it still is in danger of not meeting the deadline, according to GAO, and the district has not fully accounted for how it had spent the $120 million in funding it has received for Year 2000 fixes.

GAO had "received inconsistent and unreliable cost data from several District officials," said GAO official Gloria Jarmon. "The district cannot offer assurance that funds intended for Y2K efforts have been properly or effectively spent."

unsnip

corruption to the max

-- @ (@@@.@), October 10, 1999.

It is certainly of note that this apparently made the front page of the Sunday edition of the Washingon Post, which means it got maximum visibility. Of course, as has been noted by Nabi's "polly rant", John Q. Public can find all sorts of excuses to disregard the article as actually affecting them personally. And never, of course, entertaining the idea that systems here in the U.S. will be anything less that ready for business come 1/1/2000.

82 days.

Y2K CANNOT BE FIXED!

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), October 10, 1999.

Note to all: HOT LINKS ARE UNNECESSARY!!!!
Poster: Copy and paste the URL from the "Location" window into your text.
Users: Copy and paste the URL from the text into the "Location" window.

You all DO know how to copy and paste don't you? If not, LEARN!!

Diane, Chuck or someone -- Something like this note also should go into the FAQ that SHOULD BE LINKED AT THE TOP OF THE MAIN PAGE.

Isn't anyone else tired of two or three posts, like "please, someone, hotlink this for me". "Oops, hotlink screwed up, trying again."

Additional note for the browser impaired. If you are in a "frame" right click to "open in new window" to get the whole URL to paste into your text.

Sheesh!

-- A (A@AisA.com), October 10, 1999.

Nabi, The Wash Post a RIGHT WING rag??? Its prob the most left leaning major newspaper. So much for your credibility.

Paraguay is not of great economic importance, but how about all the other similar 3rd world backwaters that contribute a great deal of oil to this interrelated economic machine....Nigeria, Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Columbia, Venezuela, UAE, Algeria, CIS,Angola, Egypt, Gabon, Syria...etc.

-- Downstreamer (downstream@bigfoot.com), October 10, 1999.

Guess who is going to get the blame for Paraguays problem? The good old "Norte Americanos" who sold them the hardware and software. Scape goats r us.

-- kozak (kozak@formerusaf.guv), October 10, 1999.

You just missed the whole point of Nabi's post...HE WAS TOUTING THE POLLY LINE...this savvy guy KNOWS which newspaper is which...read all his great posts! :-)

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), October 10, 1999.

Downstreamer,

satire - The use of sarcasm, irony, or keen wit in denouncing abuses or follies; ridicule.

polly - short for "pollyanna"; a person who always finds good in everything; so called from the heroine of stories by Eleanor H. Porter, 1868-1920.

rant - To speak in loud, violent, or extravagant language; declaim vehemently; rave.

My post was sarcastic satire, Downstreamer.

-- Nabi (nabi7@yahoo.com), October 10, 1999.

Thanks for the post D.B., Notice that none of our resident pollies have touched this one. They can't touch this one with a 10 ft. pole.

-- Inquisitator (...@...), October 10, 1999.

It appears to have been sprayed with Hartz Polly-Off. And dipped. And sprinkled with sevin dust.

-- a (a@a.a), October 10, 1999.

billy boy,

Are you a racist clod, or just a thoughtless asshole?

Al

-- Al K. Lloyd (all@ready.now), October 10, 1999.

"This," he whispered, "is a catastrophe."

That... rips my heart out.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), October 10, 1999.

Yes Diane, and ...."the shooting of dozens of student protestors".....That rips my heart out too.

(:`(``O

We Americans know so little of the realities of our small blue marble. We are sooo unprepared for this kind of reality to be thrust upon us. It is little wonder that the disconnect is so powerful.

-- michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), October 10, 1999.

Hey AL K LlOYD, Are YOU a Jacobin or a dead man (person) (woymn) walking (same THING)

YOU know AL, Liberty, Fraternity, Equality (or death). That is you, right?,

Deo Vindice,

BR

-- brother rat (rldabney@usa.net), October 10, 1999.

Nabi, I'll recant. I stand corrected.

-- Downstreamer (downstream@bigfoot.com), October 10, 1999.

Hey AL K LlOYD, Are YOU a Jacobin or a dead man (person) (woymn) walking (same THING)

YOU know AL, Liberty, Fraternity, Equality (or death). That is you, right?,

Deo Vindice,

BR

-- brother rat (rldabney@usa.net), October 10, 1999.

Dear brother rat:

NO. But thanks for asking. Veni vidi vici.

What the FUCK are you babbling about?

Al

-- Al K. Lloyd (all@ready.now), October 10, 1999.

No problem, Downstreamer; I've misread posts before too.

-- Nabi (nabi7@yahoo.com), October 10, 1999.

Getting back to the original post, this sort of behavior by government officials is endemic in South America. No surprises there.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), October 11, 1999.

Getting back to AGF's question concerning the difference in expenditures between Fairfax County VA, and Montgomery County,MD, two large wealthy suburbs of Washington, DC. I had a conversation with the head of Fairfax County's IT Department's Y2K project last week in which he discussed that very question. The two budgets contain very different items. For example, the public schools and the local community college's Y2K projects were included in the Montgomery County budget. In Fairfax County they are considered seperate entities and those costs were not included in the county budget. I think he said that the Farifax County School system was spendng $30 million, which would bring the overall spending much closer to the Montgomery County figure. The community college is a state entity, and he didn't mention anything about their costs. (By the way, I know that the community colleges are doing something about Y2K because a year ago, a friend of mine on the faculty of one of the community colleges told me that the State had mandated a Y2K test of their telephone system. The test went well, but afterwards, everyone's telephone continuously signaled that there was a voice mail waiting to be heard, whether or not there was one. It took a very long time to figure out how to remedy that problem.)

Of course, I don't have any insight into whether either or both county's projects have been thorough and complete, or not. But this is another example of how difficult it is to get meaningful information about Y2K project readiness since there are no standards for what should be included in financial disclosures.

-- Jay Golter (JGolter@aol.com), October 11, 1999.

Dear Jay Golter,

As interesting and meaningful as your comments and observations would be elsewhere, your US-centric input to this thread is pathetic, to say the least.

Jay, this thread is not about Montgomery County Md., it is about PARAGUAY, O.Kay? Do you have any valuable comments to make about Paraguay Jay? Then let's hear them. If not, just open up a new thread on whatever you want to say, but please refrain from disturbing the line of analysis originally proposed on this thread.

Thank you

-- George (jvilches@sminter.com.ar), October 11, 1999.

Actually No there AL K,

None of the above. BTW Have you ever been there? Have you ever attempted to motivate a Platoon of poorly-trained Paraguayan conscripts who would rather collect their bribe cash from the local Cartel than do the damn job that they were assigned? I'd have to say NOT!

You obviously graduated from the same school of thought that Orwell predicted back in the Day. This being the same school who claim Gloria Steinem, Bill Klinton, Joeseph Goebbels, Stalin, Lenin, Mao, and any other PC Thought Police that continue to drag this country into the dirt. End of story.

PS I Hope you Die, but not before seeing your entire family die before you, withering away, as you lay helpless to save them.

-- Billy Boy (Rakkasn@Yahoo.com), October 11, 1999.

Billy Boy,

I have a feeling this might be a dumb question, but why do you spell Clinton's name with a K (Klinton)? Is there some kind of significance to that or was it just a typo?

-- @ (@@@.@), October 11, 1999.

Isn't that special?

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), October 11, 1999.

billi boy, you are the most useless excuse of a "human being" I've ever encountered. Not only disgustingly violent, but a great leaper to conclusions.

As a matter of fact, I have been to Latin America many, many times. People like you, who believe all the garbage they hear about how superior they are to our Latino FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS have a lot of nerve spouting their know it all bullshit here.

In my experience (which I will be willing to bet exceeds yours by at least 100 times, or you woudn't make these assinine racist statements, Latinos are very similar to US residents. There are many, many fine, intelligent people, there are lots of lazy butts, and there are lots of useless pigs, such as yourself. Just like there are many fine, intelligent people, lots of lazy butts, and lots of useless pigs, such as yourself right here in the USA.

I recommend that you do a bit of travelling in Latin America before making your racist conclusions. If you can evenfind Latin America, that is.

Tambien, yo quisiera decirte que tienes menos inteligensia que un sapo, y tu madre lleva botas de un militar. Besa mi cula, y prueba tu mismo ano, pendejo. Entonces, toma el proximo avion para el diable!

Al

-- Al K. Lloyd (all@ready.now), October 11, 1999.

Swine, no that would be a put down on pigs.

...the gloves are off. Who the **** do you think you are you little vermin? I spent ten years of my life defending freedom for ameoba like you? Good Lord whatta waste. And, yes...been there done that. Beside being operative in S.A., my team and I were mostly operative in the Southwest Asia area. The Drug Interdiction missions were for fun and games. I NEVER stated anything about the Spanish people as a whole so if you don't GI on humor, then you got WAY bigger problems than Y2K to worry about. I remember guys like you in grade school...the little rat who tattled on everyone, and ate paste in the corner for fun and excitement. Ten to one sez you are some post pubescent living at home with delusions of mental masturbation while surfing the web...dreaming of the end of the world.

So tell you what MR. PC Police, when they ask you to turn on the ovens, will that *excite* you?...Go on tell the truth....

-- Billy Boy (Rakkasn@yahoo.com), October 11, 1999.

"The truth is that there is a lot of dependence on technology here. They just aren't aware of it."

Is there anybody out there left who does not realize the
CHAOS CONFLAGRATION
about to engulf civilization?

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 11, 1999.

Thanks A&L for pointing that out...better to turn the othewr cheek and drive on with the preps. PeacE!!!

-- (Rakkasn@yahoo.com), October 11, 1999.

Thanks A&L for pointing that out...better to turn the other cheek and drive on with the preps. PeacE!!!

-- Billy Boy (Rakkasn@yahoo.com), October 11, 1999.

A,

Not all browsers (IE 3.x for example) allow you to copy/paste the location. And yes, some of us do still run IE 3, (my "backup" Win/3.11 386 machine). <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), October 11, 1999.

We will all be praying for peace shortly. Y2K will abruptly burst into our sunny abundant lives and shake us all back to sobering priorities. If the infrastructure fails in any measureable way the government will declare Martial Law, FEMA Fun, State of Emergency -- they can fiddle with semantics but the result will be the same, all over the world.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 11, 1999.

Unfortunate but true. "Such is the Circle of Life" to quote Simba (Lion King is the kid's fave) Hopefully, things will 'go quietly into that good night' rather than the potentitial apocalypse that some forsee. Thanks for helping me to regain perspecive on this and to ignor the 'slings and arrows of outrageous' morons like al k.

-- Billy Boy (Rakkasn@yahoo.com), October 11, 1999.

So, billi billi,

You were an operative in S.A? Then I guess you must be pretty fluent in Spanish, no? Pues, tracuce este, pendejo:

Muy pronto alguien va a descabazarte y hacer caca por tu garganta! Ja, ja, ja! Come caca y muerate, cerdito.

'Fraid you're slightly off about my age, Mr. Omniscience; I'm a grandfather. If you are such an expert at international issues, I'm sure you can find someone to help you translate my little message to you. On the other hand, maybe you'd better not. I'd hate to cause such an old fart as yourself to have a stroke :-P

-- Al K. Lloyd (all@ready.now), October 11, 1999.

Al K

You're a real Renaissance Man...someone who talks gutter in TWO languages....Oooooooohhhh! I'm impressed!

-- TM (mercier7@pdnt.com), October 11, 1999.

Right on, TM, I shouldn't let little farts like Billi baby let me get upset by saying things like, "PS I Hope you Die, but not before seeing your entire family die before you, withering away, as you lay helpless to save them. "

I'm sure he didn't really mean it...

Al

-- Al K. Lloyd (all@ready.now), October 13, 1999.