Drudge: MAG: 75% OF AMERICANS STAYING HOME FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE

http://www.pathfinder.com/time/pr/newyears.html

For Immediate Release >> Sunday, November 21st, 1999

COVER/TIME-CNN POLL

What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

New York, NY -- A majority (75%) of Americans are planning to celebrate New Year's Eve at home this year, according to the latest TIME/CNN poll. Only 21% are planning to travel on New Year's Eve.

Seventy-two percent of Americans also say they are not planning to do "something special" that evening. These results are up from 63% who responded the same way in January. The poll results are part of TIME's cover story, "The Simple New Year's Eve," in TIME's Nov. 29th issue (on newsstands Monday).

Sixty-eight percent plan to get together with friends and family on New Year's Eve. Nineteen percent are arranging to be alone with a spouse. When the clocks strikes midnight, 62% plan to be kissing someone, 56% will be watching TV, 35% hope to be drinking champagne, 34% will be at a party, 28% plan to be under the influence of alcohol, 20% will be having sex, and 15% plan to be at a religious service.

Forty-five percent of Americans say they are excited that 2000 will start in a couple of months, but 41% responded they feel no different from any other New Year. Only one in five say their New Year's Eve plans for the Millennium are "bigger than usual." Most people (59%) are planning to spend the same amount of money this New Year's Eve as a typical year -- on average, $176.

Forty-one percent of Americans are concerned about the Y2K bug problem, while 58% said they are not. When TIME/CNN asked the same question in January, results were almost reversed, with 58% responding they were concerned and 39% saying they were not. While most say they are not concerned, almost half are planning to take some type of precautions to protect themselves from possible problems. These include 47% who say they will withdraw extra cash, 46% will stockpile water and food, 36% will keep family members at home, and 30% will not fly on an airplane.

Almost half of Americans (46%) believe the Second Coming of Jesus Christ will occur sometime in the next thousand years. Twenty-nine percent think it will occur during the next 100 years. Americans are split on whether the 21st century will begin the year 2000 (44%) or 2001 (45%).

The TIME/CNN poll was conducted with 1,1021 adult Americans age 18 or older voters by Yankelovich Partners on November 10-11, 1999. The margin of error for total sampling is +/- 3.1%.

-- Headlines (drudge@report.now), November 21, 1999

Answers

Thanks for the heads-up on this one. I'll be curious to see what the overall story looks like; I was contacted by a Time reporter who wanted to interview me about my plans for New Year's Eve, and I declined to get involved.

As you may remember, Time did a cover story at the beginning of the year that focused on the religious-fanatic aspect of Y2K, with a rather lurid graphic on the cover of the magazine. The problem was that several of us Y2K "activists" (for lack of a better term) were interviewed at great length by reasonably intelligent reporters WITHOUT being given any inkling that the senior editors had already decided on the overall theme and perspective of their story. As a result, we got incorporated into a story that we would have preferred not to be associated with at all. Having thus been burned once, I now know enough to stay away from Time reporters...

Ed

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), November 21, 1999.

Oh oh sh*t

-- read the numbers (glad@i'm.prepped.ahead), November 21, 1999.

Good luck to them. They put it on their daily planner for 12/27 or thereabouts.

-- oh that can wait (got@party.tomorrow), November 21, 1999.

"The poll results are part of TIME's cover story, "The Simple New Year's Eve," in TIME's Nov. 29th issue (on newsstands Monday)"

simple

-- simpleton (it'll@be.nothing), November 21, 1999.

Drudge has been headlining Y2K more.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), November 21, 1999.

Hey A&L, Ed and other Yourdynamites.

The stores in this area seem to be prepared a bit differently for the holiday season, than those of past years. More canned goods (cases), toilet paper (bundles of 24), canned hams (as opposed to fresh) and other items.

Considering the late date, the recent events, and the increase in media coverage as of late, I have a sense of the pre race nervousness that occurs just before the starting gun goes off.

Curiously, our Home Depot has an incredible store of generators, over fifty as of last count this week. It has been one of my personal flash point indicators of the local mindset. I know they have sold a bunch of them over the last few months, an ever increasing amount as the days slip by, but no shortages as of the other day. We'll see.

A&L, please check you e-mail.

Thanks again to all here that made it possible for me to face the uncertainty of the coming debacle with a sense of security that I would not have had, if not for your work and support.

Respectfully;

Michael

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), November 21, 1999.

Michael, we zipped a reply to you a while ago ... come in, come in :-)

We echo you: a Huge Thanks to Ed & this Forum!

Still nervous ...

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), November 21, 1999.

another jewel headlined on Drudge now:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991121/aponline142654_ 000.htm

Jewel Nixes Concert for Y2K Fears

Sunday, Nov. 21, 1999; 2:26 p.m. EST

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, AP  Pop singer Jewel has pulled the plug on her scheduled New Year's Eve concert before home-state fans, citing, among other things, worries over possible Y2K problems.
...

-- he do go wit de trend (drudge@report.now), November 21, 1999.

I believe the poll result that says that 75% of people polled plan on staying home. I don't know anyone in my family or circle of friends who is planning to be anywhere other than home on New Year's Eve and they are NOT GI's by any stretch of the imagination. Hmmm..what happened to all the fancy cool celebrations?

Personally, I plan on sitting on my stairwell, looking out the big bay window over the stairs at the street and generally pondering and meditating and praying nothing happens. The hubby and I will probably share a kiss at midnight, but in past years, it has been a "celebrating another year" kiss and this year it will be a "good luck" kiss! We might go peep in on our sleeping daughter.

New Year's Eve will be 3 days after our 8th wedding anniversary (oh, honey, a canned ham! how romantic!)

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), November 21, 1999.

Michael,

Where are you from? I'm in Chicago

-- Sheila P (Sheilamars@aol.com), November 21, 1999.