http://www.l-e-o.com/news/0510chit.htm

Put away the Scotch

May 10, 1999 Tim Chitwood News Columnist

Big ideas, images and distorted facts, it's Monday Mail.

Today we feature a few of the many e-mails that poured in after an April 28 column said the whole Y2K thing was just too much trouble to worry about.

Here's one from ART6500@aol.com. He didn't sign a name:

You are an idiot!

Here's a more elaborate response from Diane Squire:

How can you claim to be a "News Columnist?" Clearly, you're not even a decent investigative reporter.

. . . Do you ever even read the congressional testimony, GAO reports, United Nations Year 2000, FEMA reports, CIA testimony, SEC 10-Q filings, and other related international Y2K information? The government information list goes on, and on.

You equate Y2K with panic and paranoia. That's just plain stupid. Do your homework. Or is that too tough an assignment?

Sheesh!

Then that comment: "So we can only hope residents here won't be so reckless as to stay home testing their phone lines New Year's Eve when they should be out drinking like responsible adults." Rarely do I feel moved to call a "journalist" a total twit. You qualify. You rate a D-minus on your news media report card.

Diane.

DEAR DIANE:

Thanks. That means a lot coming from someone who can't tell a humor column from an investigative report.

Here's one from Michael Hicks in regard to that same excerpt Diane just quoted:

The truly "responsible adult" thing to do to avoid panic is to prepare NOW.

Surfing in from Connecticut,

M.C. Hicks.

DEAR MIKE:

Good point. I'm going to put away a week's worth of Scotch, just in case.

We also got some positive responses, like this one:

You sir, write very well. Your outlook is hilarious as it is informative. In the past years I have waivered from survivalist to complacent. Now -- just saturated. Whatever happens, I wish you the best for I have been thoroughly entertained.

AND THIS one:

I went to the year 2000 Web page, and found your article under a list of related articles. I was cracking up when I read it. The flare thing was great. Everyone could shoot off the flare, and the police could come arrest them. That is so typical of what might happen. Your article made me feel a lot better, especially after reading some of the more "doomsday" listings. Your style was fresh, sarcastic, and realistic. I live in Tulsa, Okla., and will visit your Web site regularly if you promise not to change your perspective on things, and to keep me laughing.

Dawn.

DEAR DAWN:

Thanks. I promise not to change my perspective until next year, at least.

Tim Chitwood is a Ledger-Enquirer columnist. Got a thought? Write: Chitwood, P.O. Box 711, Columbus, Ga., 31902-0711. Or send E-mail to chitwood@ledgerenquirer.com.

-- pshannon (pshannon@sangersreview.com), May 10, 1999

Answers

Thanks pshannon,

I still don't find his stuff "humorous" -- especially his comment "when they should be out drinking like responsible adults."

Oh well.

Many still laugh at Y2K. Will they next year?

Diane

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

His original article ...

April 28, 1999 - Preparing for panic: All those Y2K warnings we've been hearing just got a credibility boost with the May edition of Consumer Reports magazine, which features a special report on "How to prepare for Y2K."

http://www.l-e- o.com/news/0428chitwood.htm

And somewhare there was a Yourdon thread on this one.

*Sigh*

Diane

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

Don't mind him, Diane. There is a town fool in every town.

You cannot convince everyone, no matter what. At least your reply was printed so that someone may take it upon themselves to 'find out' what is going on.

That is good. You done good. Keep it up!

-- J (jart5@bellsouth.net), May 10, 1999.

I still don't find his stuff "humorous"

Talk about "twits"! You take the cake, Duh-iane!! Just because "you" don't find his article humorous, doesn't mean that it was intended as a serious piece of investigative journalism. Anyone who read it and did not figure out that it was a tongue-in-cheek piece is a complete moron!!

-- Do You See (HowStupid@You.Look), May 10, 1999.

Id rather risk looking stupid, upon occasion, than being stupid, most the time ... Do You See 2!

Its a media characterization thing about Y2K panic et. al., but you probably dont see that one.

Got glasses?

Diane

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

It's not about 'looking stupid', Duh-iane, it's about being a moron! And anyone who read Chitwood's article and responded as you did is a MORON!!! Did you happen to read any of his other articles to see if he was an "investigative journalist" or a humorous columnist?

And, no, I don't see the media conspiracy that you do because I'm not a raving lunatic suffering from paranoia like you are!

*Sigh*

-- Do You See (HowStupid@You.Look), May 10, 1999.

"Id rather risk looking stupid, upon occasion, than being stupid, most the time"

The problem is that you "look" stupid so often.

-- Middle (ground@tiredofthelooney.s), May 10, 1999.

More ... on ...

Y2K and panic ...

Panic Could Be Biggest Hurdle For Year 2000 (Canada)

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 000oX5

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

Diane,

I agree, it isn't what I would qualify as a 'humorous' column. If that was his intent, I think he failed. Poking fun at the Y2K issues is fine, as long as you don't mix it up with valid information, such as telephone numbers and details about an actual seminar.

I used to live near Columbus, Georgia so I am not that surprised at the lack of quality in their newspaper.

Dian

-- Dian (bdp@accessunited.com), May 10, 1999.

Diane, I know just how you feel. I too, think writing about a serious issue such as Y2K and putting the humor "spin" on it is a disservice to the public. It has been my chief complaint all along about mainstream media coverage. Y2K preparation is treated with the same "wink-and-nod" as UFO abductions or else is portrayed as "survivalist" activity. (And when did "survivalist" get to be a dirty word?)

I agree with the poster above... don't be discouraged. You did good to send the message you sent. Maybe, just maybe, someone who reads the column will get curious.

-- nowayjose (lurkinghere@ho.me), May 10, 1999.

Diane,

Weird. I posted a whole message to this thread earlier which is now NOT part of the thread. I don't see how the software could make that happen. Well, I don't feel like rewriting it. Suffice to say, hang in there.

PJ in TX

-- PJ Gaenir (fire@firedocs.com), May 11, 1999.

Aah, well. Dead men don't tell jokes.

-- Spidey (in@jam.com), May 11, 1999.

Diane,

Did you read the book "Nightfall" by Issac Asminov (sp?). This guy sounds like Theremore / Theremoan...? (the reporter who poo-poo the entire event, then when it happened, he went into total depression because he felt he contributed in a Big Way to the complacancy (sp??) of the people.)

M.Moth

-- M.Moth (Derigueur2@aol.com), May 11, 1999.

Didn't read that book. Sorry.

Still need to finish Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael."

I suspect there will be numerous reporters, with "brilliant" Y2K hindsight commentary, writing on the "if only" topic ... next year.

This year ... there's a paucity of those taking on the "background" stories ... in any depth.

Far easier for some to ridicule.

Perhaps next year they'll do some community service work to help out and mitigate their "lessons learned." Then again, maybe not.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), May 11, 1999.

If a serious, informed reader cannot tell whether a reporter is being humorous, exaggerating to get a point across, or simply being funny, then the reporter has failed, not the reader.

There is a specific, credible difference between what Dave Barry writes and what Chitwood writes. In this case, he failed to communicate either his humor or his opinion. review his reply to "Dawn" clearly indicating his specific intention was to deny the probability that Y2K will bring troubles and interuptions to millions.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), May 11, 1999.

Good work Diane!

This idea of treating Y2K as a joke has created the impression for people that just read the headline that it is a joke, instead of the greatest technological blunder/disaster in history. I'm glad this pinhead doesn't live by you or he might be the first person at the door when TSHTF. I concur with your sentiments that '99 reporters are, for the most part, very, very intellectually lazy even with the Internet to help them do what we have all done. RESEARCH! Keep diggin' and postin......'

Paul Christy

former programmer/analyst for the most part

-- PJC (paulchri@msn.com), May 11, 1999.

Diane,

"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God?"

-Emerson

From Nightfall, in Astounding Science Fiction, September, 1941, by Isaac Asimov.

Aton 77, director of Saro University, thrust out a belligerent lower lip and glared at the young newspaperman (Theremon 762) in a hot fury.

. . .

"I don't believe, young man, that anything you could say now would count much as compared with your daily columns of these last two months. You have led a vast newspaper campaign against the efforts of myself and my colleagues to organize the world against the menace which it is now too late to avert. You have done your best with your highly personal attacks to make the staff of this Observatory objects of ridicule."

. . .

(Theremon speaking to Aton) "Just as soon as this is all over, the business interests will be after your hide. They'll say that if crackpots--begging your pardon--can upset the country's prosperity any time they want, simply by making some cockeyed prediction--it's up to the planet to prevent them. The sparks will fly, sir."

. . .

(after the predicted "nightfall" has occurred) With the slow fascination of fear, he lifted himself on one arm and turned his eyes toward the blood-curdling blackness of the window.

Through it shone the Stars!

Not Earth's feeble thirty-six hundred Stars visible to the eye; Lagash (the planet where the story takes place) was in the center of a giant cluster. Thirty thousand mighty suns shone down in a soul-searing splendor that was more frighteningly cold in its awful indifference than the bitter wind that shivered across the cold, horribly bleak world.

Theremon staggered to his feet, his throat constricting him to breathlessness, all the muscles of his body writhing in an intensity of terror and sheer fear beyond bearing. He was going mad and knew it, and somewhere deep inside a bit of sanity was screaming, struggling to fight off the hopeless flood of black terror. It was very horrible to go mad and know that you were going mad--to know that in a little minute you would be here physically and yet all the real essence would be dead and drowned in the black madness. For this was the Dark--the Dark and the Cold and the Doom. The bright walls of the universe were shattered and their awful black fragments were falling down to crush and squeeze and obliterate him.

(Hardliner again)

Dr. Isaac Asimov, PhD, in addition to writing as excellent science fiction as has ever been written, wrote organic chemistry and biochemistry textbooks and taught biochemistry to medical students at Johns Hopkins University Medical School. In Nightfall at least, he was also an extremely erudite "Doomer".

Perhaps Tim Chitwood will suffer a fate similar to Theremon. . .

-- Hardliner (searcher@internet.com), May 11, 1999.

Hardliner,

WOW...! Thanks for saying what I meant to say, lacking as it was...

M.Moth

-- M.Moth (Derigueur@aol.com), May 11, 1999.