A few days ago, I got into a conversation at a gas station with the person using the next side of the pump. We both liked the commentator that I had really loud on the radio. He said something about getting a bunch of friends to cut off Washington DC from the rest of the country.

I said don't be a unibomber. Just wait 11 months for y2k to do the job for you. He said "do I really think it will be that bad?" I offered a bet. I will meet you here at noon, Feb. 1, 2000. The bet on y2k would be 2 rolls of toilet paper. He laughed and said sure. Then I said, "think about it. If y2k is really bad, 2 rolls of toilet paper will be worth more than gold. If it is nothing, they are worth a nickle each, so already, I have the advantage in the bet." He paused and said "I need to think about this."

I love making "how bad will it be?" bets with rolls of toilet paper. After all, if it isn't very bad, I need to get rid of the huge stash in my garage.

I would love to hear how others try to bring awareness to total strangers.

-- David Holladay (davidh@brailleplanet.org), February 14, 1999

Answers

I only dare do things like this in the pet food aisle. For some reason, pet owners don't mind being talked to by other pet owners. I also think they probably will Get It more quickly, perhaps because when they look at my basket piled with on-sale pet food and supplies they understand when I say, "Have to stock up--if there's another bad storm or something, the Red Cross won't provide pet food and cat litter. And it's such a good price--I can't resist!" They smile and nod in understanding. I daren't mention Y2K, I've had too many weird looks and hasty retreats.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), February 14, 1999.

Hats off to one of the Johnny Appleseeds of the Y2K awareness movement. Can we call you Charmin David? My y2k awareness attempts have been much more straightforward and seem to have flopped almost completely. I'll try your method of going in through the back door.

-- Bill Byars (billbyars@softwaresmith.com), February 14, 1999.

We have tried to raise awareness in our community, quietly and subtly however. In fact, my Mother-In-Law, who knows many in the community has talked to people and we finally told her to stop, because she was being ridiculed and or dismissed as "crazy". The truth is we are trying simply to find out what our local government, departments such as water, santiation, police are doing. Even that is a task and the answers we have received so far are vague or incomplete. I put together a website (free) on geocities, so if any one is interested please take a look...and feel free to comment or contribute. We are in the Weirton, WV area but the kind of things we are trying to to can apply to just about any small community or town. http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Byte/6091/ Jeff

-- jeff (y2kweirton@aol.com), February 14, 1999.

David:

Very interesting. Because I have limited garage storage space reserved for gasoline cans, the mulitiple rolls of toilet paper must be put elsewhere. My basic TP storage plan is to acquire some large boxes and bring them up to the attic, then fill them with rolls of TP and cover with the box flats. Although the temperature will rise in the summer, I don't think the plastic wrappings will melt on the TP. I've read to NEVER store food up in the attic, so I thought, Why let this space go to waste? I wish I had a basement, but have only a crawl space. That area would be too damp for TP.

Does anyone see any problems with storing TP in the attic?

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), February 14, 1999.

Upstairs is exactly where we store our TP and other paper products, Dino. It's not the attic, but it the second floor of a shop building that's 30X50. Plenty of room up there. We live in Texas, so it gets pretty hot up there, but not hot enough to do any damage.

-- Vic (Roadrunner@compliant.com), February 14, 1999.

This nagging TP problem keeps creeping up in such unlikely places ;-)

How I solved my problem is by buying large commercial rolls of thin one-ply paper (hubby balked at this, saying that we had nothing to hang it onto and it would be wasted, but I replied that TP in any form will be luxury and -I- would be the dispenser.)

One roll comes in a sturdy packaged box, about 2 x 1' in size, which I purchased at Costco. Very convenient to store anywhere.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), February 14, 1999.

Why not just use your "dung hand"? - working In Saudi Arabia may pay off for me yet!!! :)

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), February 15, 1999.

Andy:

Somebody at work suggested using a corn cob...only once.

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), February 15, 1999.