Charlie Sykes is a relatively well-known radio talk show host and author in Milwaukee. His show is #1 in its time slot. This morning, he opened up his phone lines to talk about Y2k. I missed the show, unfortunately.

Here's a brief summary of the show, along with a copy of an e-mail I sent to him in response.

-- Steve (hartsman@ticon.net), November 10, 1999

Answers

Actually, Sykes' polly position is one that I can respect: Nothing much is going to happen because Y2K was never any big deal in the first place, it was overblown hype from the very beginning, and so nothing can happen. This polly view is at least consistent. (Of course, you have to then explain how government and industry were stupidly hoodwinked into spending so much money, time and resources at Y2K, as well as all the large scale preparation that governments are doing for power outages, food shortages, etc. But hey, no belief is perfect.)

Now, it's the polly beliefs like, "It's all fixed now!", or "No problems YET (1999), so problems WILL (2000) happen!", or "Everything will be fine, that's what all the self-reported assessments say!", or "Well, OF COURSE the gov't needs to do large scale preparation for 3 weeks of power outages, but YOU should plan for only 3 days." -- those are the really incredible ones....

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), November 10, 1999.

I liked your letter.

-- Mr. I M Wack (wacko@shoot.my.load.com), November 10, 1999.

Steve,

My daughter and her family live in Milwaukee. As far as I know, they have done no preparing. Scares me. I used to live there. It can get so cold. I have already told her that I hoped she would do something but I can't force her. How does the situation look in Sudsville?

-- (lars@indy.net), November 10, 1999.

Steve, I thought your email to Charlie Sykes was thoughtful and well written. I hope he at least takes a look at your site.

I'm a journalist in Wisconsin but I don't live close enough to Milwaukee to hear his show. I'm not sorry I missed it though. We have a popular morning talk show at our station (in Madison) but the host doesn't think y2k will be a big deal, either. Even if our callers often cite much of the research on Y2k it gets brushed off.

In fact, there are very few people in our news/talk department that think Y2K will be a big deal.

I got tired of pounding the table long ago that people should _at least_ take the minimal advice of Koskinen and the Red Cross and prepare for three days. No takers. I gave up after the other reporters starting sending me all these "feel good" y2k stories and said, "See no problem!"

Whatever.

I'm preparing for 15 days and I feel comfortable with that level.

At least where I work there isn't a "conspiracy" to cover up the issue. There is just a general level of 1) Oh, it won't be that bad 2) Oh, it *can't* be that bad 3) Well, if it's a little bad we'll be okay and 4) Well, if it gets _that_ bad it can last very long.

I'm prepared to be wrong ... and eat my insurance well into 2000. I was a little comforted by a co-worker (not in the news department) who confessed to me today (unprovoked) that her and her husband have a wood stove, a fireplace, lots of extra food in the pantry, their own well and 18 acres in the country and they ARE preparing for the worst. God bless her. I hope we don't need it.

Sorry to go on and on. Thanks for listening.

-- MSL (nprbuff@hotmail.com), November 10, 1999.

Another minor mistake. He meant to say, "nothing will work."

-- Dave (aaa@aaa.com), November 10, 1999.

How's it look here in Brewtown?

We may rival D.C. and Atlanta, if a recent repor t is to be believed, which, of course, no one in power does.

Of 22 city departments, 20 are given a grade of "very weak" for their Y2K preparations. The remaining two - the library and the Fire and Police Commission - are given grades of "weak."

The review of the city's most critical systems - such as streetlights, emergency vehicles and dispatch centers - graded all but one as "very weak." The fire dispatch center received a grade of "weak."

This past summer, the person in charge of the city's Y2k project told attendees at the local Y2k Town Hall Meeting (off the record, naturally) that the mayor has publicly lied about the Y2k compliance status of the Police and Fire Departments, and that the city has a lot of work remaining, and that he expects lots of problems.

As is seemingly true universally, he lacks the courage to go public.

The local press has largely ignored the issue. The only Y2k story run by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel since the above local story was a 2-page spread on Y2k and your pet.

I have done more than my share to try to educate the local media, to no avail.

-- Steve (hartsman@ticon.net), November 10, 1999.

Steve,

Thanks for the update. I sent my daughter a copy of your email to Charlie Sykes and the Journal-Sentinel article. If there is a Rose Bowl, good luck to the Badgers!

Lars

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), November 10, 1999.