Recently I read about the role that Y2K played in the current economic crisis. Apparently, the Fed was afraid that Y2K could lock up the markets, so they injected extra liquidity into the system to prevent chaos in case all the computers in the country went kablooey when the millennium arrived. Turns out that nothing much happened when the calendar flipped over except the usual hangovers, but the extra liquidity remained in the money supply, helping to inflate the speculative bubble that finally burst nearly 10 years later.
Y2K weighed on Mom's mind that hot summer's day in 1999 when I drove her and Sadie, her cat, from Meadville to their new home with us in Maryland. In addition to a caged cat on tranquilizers, the car was carrying at least five table lamps ("I won't know which one I want until I try them out. You can find places in your house for the ones I can't use.") and four dozen cans of Fancy Feast.
A few days after Mom settled in, we went to the supermarket. Mom stocked up on groceries, including another four dozen cans of cat food. "Mom," I said, "You already brought 4 dozen cans with you from Meadville. Why are you buying more?"
"Oh, that other is my supply of Y2K catfood."
"Y2K catfood?"
"Yes, when New Year's comes and everything shuts down, people will understand what's happening, but animals won't. How will I explain to my poor cat that the cat food factory has shut down?"
That's cute, I don't think I had ever heard of any Y2K pet food hoarding. I imagine your mother was, and most likely still is quite a character.
ReplyDeleteThats a cute y2k story. I remember the day before y2k that each member of our family, without knowing what the others were doing, on the way home from work picked up a gallon of milk and dog food. I dont know why we thought that was all we needed but we ended up with four bags of dog food and four gallons of milk that night!
ReplyDeleteThat was interesting to read about the y2k's contribution to our financial mess.
As for your question about the blogroll problem, I think the reason it is not working for you is that I changed the name of my blog awhile back. I think you will need to delete my blog from your blog roll and add it again with the new name "A View From A Room". The web address is still the same.. it is http://smartiplants.blogspot.com