I am one of those who thought surely that people would begin reading the writing on the tea leaves someone had thrown against the fan that got sprayed on the walls, er, or something like that, back in April, then summer, then October. Wrong wrong wrong. Now, with THE MOVIE coming tomorrow night, many of us are ascratchin' and awonderin' about its impact and effect upon the populace. Will they Get It, finally? Will they panic? I doubt it, and here's why:

Right now Y2k is in a "celebrity deathmatch" of sorts with Christmas. Mano a mano, toe to toe, head to head, blah blah blah. Which is the more powerful meme, the notion of widespread computer failure and consequent social breakdown, or "show your love through spending/Jesus loves me, so I spend/"? Hands down, it's Christmas. Christmas spending will kick Y2k's ass. Think: Y2k has been hyped for, at best, two years. Christmas is in people's bone marrow; it is part of America's social DNA; it is the engine of the retail machine; it is TOO BIG TO FAIL. The average person hears "y2k," but then blaring from every rooftop and storefront and tv set: "CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS" The average person catches a scent of "y2k," but his nostrils are filled with the overpowering aroma of "CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS." The average person catches out of the corner of his eye a fleeting, ill-lighted hologram, projected onto a storefront window from a speeding truck, the tiny little image "y2k," while blimps, billboards, gihugic (that's gigantic and huge) flat screen televisions on Times Square project in ultra-real, ultra-fantastic seductive entertaining MONGOCOLOR: "CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS."

Americans are not powerful enough to transcend their culture. Christmas is the ultimate reality of our consumer/consumption society. Christmas rules. Christmas rocks. Christmas will kick Y2k's ass. The majority of the people shall not be moved. Faced with the choice between squirreling away $200 in mayonnaise jar or buying junior that special toy, whatcha think most folks are gonna do?

-- Kurt Ayau (Ayau@iwinet.com), November 20, 1999

Answers

Uh huh. What about the "dead zone" between Christmas and New Year's? Now THAT's scary.

-- scary (scary@scary.scary), November 20, 1999.

Between Xmas and y2k DDay? No sweat! Football, football, football!

-- (opiate@the.masses), November 20, 1999.

Ironic because if only people would emulate the Lord Jesus Christ come Rollover, the world would have a chance to survive Y2K.

At the current rate: NO. Gonna blow Infomagic.

May the Lord help us all.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), November 20, 1999.

AMEN, I've got to work OVERTIME so Johnny can have a $200 Furpokeman Joe or he'll be disappointed and have a long face when he opens Christmas packages. That would be fate worse than death PLUS Mommy is pregnant with number 4, and Peggy Sue needs dental work, and the furnace has been acting up. What's Y2K? Is that a new Nintendo game? Gawd, I hope Billy Bob hasn't heard about it or I'll have to buy one of those too.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), November 20, 1999.

Put my money on Christmas.

I do expect disappointing sales as people start feeling the sky cloud over. DO NOT plan to be anywhere near a store in the dead zone between Christmas and New Year.

The second match on the big bill will the always popular fight between procrastination vs panic. (Too close to call)

-- squid (Itsdark@down.here), November 20, 1999.

OK, I give up. I'm ashamed to admit it...but will someone please tell me what "meme" means as in: "Which is the more powerful meme,".

thank you, sdb

-- S. David Bays (SDBAYS@prodigy.net), November 20, 1999.

Squid: Great imagery here. Especially like:"as people start feeling the sky cloud over" and "The second match on the big bill will be the always popular fight between procrastination vs panic".

And here, maybe what we have is, even though the judgment of God is about to overtake the inhabitants, STILL, they couldn't help themselves for the weight of their sin which manifested now as procrastination had set in.

Lord have mercy on us all.

sdb

-- S. David Bays (SDBAYS@prodigy.net), November 20, 1999.

NO! NO! NO MORE MEMES! PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZ! (whimpering... please... no more memes... no more memes... no more memes...)

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), November 20, 1999.

Let me tell you about the wet meme that I had, just the other ... No? You don't? But I thought ...

Well, OK then.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), November 20, 1999.

Hey, KOS:

Do you like to Meme Wrestle?

-- LauraA (Laadedah@aol.com), November 20, 1999.

Meme is the character that wears a lot of make up and is really annoying on the Drew Carey Show. She is also what I call my grandmother.

But seriously, Kurt, your post was great. My thoughts exactly. NOTHING can beat Christmas. In the dead zone, on December 28, is the 8th anniversary of the day I married my Prince Charming. He is getting me special fancy canned ham (not DAK) and I am getting him a CB radio (will buy it long before then, though) Romantic, huh?

For Christmas I got him a really good multi-tool. My birthday is at the end of this month and he is getting me a tent. Cool,huh?

On a more serious note, I went to Target today and just LOOKED at all the frivilous holiday stuff people blow their $$ on. In past years I wouldn't have been able to get out of there w/out buying some of that crap, but this yeaar I left with a couple of space blankets, a new backpack, a food thermos, and some more waterproof matches. So proud of myself.

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), November 20, 1999.

Preparing, I know what you mean. I've said for a while that I'll know that people are heeding the warnings and prepping when the parking lot at Sam's has more cars than the lot for WalMart. Walmart has more of the stuff that you don't need to survive, while Sam's is the place for laying in stores. I really don't think I'll see this shift by this coming Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. It's going to be, as some have said, the week after Christmas that is the wackiest.

-- Kurt Ayau (Ayau@iwinet.com), November 20, 1999.

Speaking of Christmas, U.S. News and World Report had an interesting article on Christmas a few years ago. Here are some things I remember from the article ( I wish I still had it, I kept it but my mother accidently threw it out ).

During most of the 19th Century, Christmas was a time when if you were wealthy, you could expect carrollers (sp?) to show up at your door. They would sing a few songs, then you would be expected to provide them with food and drink. If you didn't you might find yourself getting quite a nasty beating because Christmas had become a time when the wealthy ( the haves ) were suppose to show good christian feelings towards the poor ( the have-nots ) who constituted a good portion of the population at the tme.

Christmas prior to the 19th century, especially in Europe, had been a rather low-key holiday until it got mixed in with the YULE, a pagan holiday which occured towards the end of the year. The Yule was a time to celebrate the coming of the new year by eating and drinking in a quite excessive way.

The two holidays merged and by the 19th Century Christmas had come to represent a holiday when those that had prospered during the past year were suppose to share some of their good fortune with those who had not.

Towards the end of the 19th Century wealthy people had become more and more frightned of Christmas, as that had become a time when the have nots not only demanded food and drink for their singing, but also gifts as well. Violence started to become common.

The wealthy and powerful had finally had enough of this holiday, so getting together with ministers who wanted a more family-oriented holiday and less mayhem, they came up with the idea that Christmas would become a holiday when families would have get-togethers and exchange gifts with each other.

The merchants loved this idea. They decorated their stores more intensly than anybody, hung banners reminding people that Christmas was coming, and this paid off. Some merchants made almost 50% of their total year's sales during the Christmas holidays.

So the wealthy, the ministers, and the merchants benefitted from this new arangement.

The article concluded by asking would we remember Christ's birthday if we didn't have all the hoopla that has come to surround Christmas Day ? The answer was we probably would not.

-- Stanley Lucas (StanleyLucas@WebTv.net), November 20, 1999.

Hey Stanley,

You can trace the roots of christmas futher back than the Nineteenth Century. You can go all the way back to Rome in the Third century, and if you wanted to, you could go back even before that.

The inculcation of christmas into Christianity happened after Constantine converted but couldn't get the masses in Rome to give-up the pagan holidays of the Saturnalia, which worshipped the sun as a god. In the Julian calendar (named after Caesar), the longest night of the year was December 25th, whereby the Romans celebrated the "Rebirth of the Venerable sun" or Saturnalia, when the days started to get longer again.

The Saturnalia was a massive Feast of orgies, holly, garland and gift- giving. The pagans refused to give-up the practice when Constantine converted to Christianity. So, they compromised the holiday. The pagans were encouraged to convert, but instead of worshipping the rebirth of the sun on December 25th, they were told to celebrate the birth of the Son of God on December 25th, and still retain all the trappings of the holiday. Rome then converted.

Check it out in your library. A great source of information on the historical origins of many doctrines held today can be found in Catholic Encyclopedias.

You can go back even further and discover the origins of decorating a tree by looking up the stories of Nimrod, Semiramis and his Wife.

History can be fascinating.

-- INVAR (gundark@sw.net), November 20, 1999.

Celebrity Deathmatch is a fine show. Why couldn't you have Christmas vs Y2K ? You could have Santa Clause in one corner and a giant bug with a PC for a head in the other.

Oh well, just a thought.

-- Stanley Lucas (StanleyLucas@WebTv.net), November 21, 1999.