There used to be a time when well meaning, but slightly deranged folks, used
to patrol the streets & hold up placards proclaiming that the end of the world
is nigh!

This morning's Antipodean newspapers are full of the story that the New
Zealand's Millenium Committee's planning is so sadly lacking and the
Government has had to belatedly appoint an AUSTRALIAN to tackle the
celebration management!
In response to this announcement of national importance, several of my
colleagues have rather rudely pointed out that, you should only put someone in
charge who knows how to read the time! What can they mean I wonder?!

The rest of the paper seems full of doom and gloom predictions about the Y2K
BUG and how it will destroy human life as we know it, because computers will
be hoodwinked into believing that they are operating in the year 1901.

For those of us in the Museum and nonprofit world, responsible for maintaining
cultural records in secure databases, there ARE serious implications. There
must surely be a LIGHTER side to all of this millenium stuff as wel,l or am I
alone in thinking that the timing for the event is not  only inaccurate but
also overated?!
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On the subject of time, some titles for your Year 2000 and  20th Century
edification! Just a few of the one thousand titles available in
DR DRUM'S NOT-FOR-POFIT BOOKSHOP

http://members.tripod.com/~DrDrum_2/Bookshop.html

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* RITES OF PASSAGE: ART FOR THE END OF THE CENTURY -Morgan & Morris

* SIGNS FOR THE TIMES: SYMBOLIC REALISM IN MID-VICTORIAN WORLD - Chris Brooks

* TWENTIETH CENTURY POPULAR CULTURE IN MUSEUMS & LIBRARIES - Fred Schroder

* THE WIRED MUSEUM: EMERGING TECHNOLOGY & CHANGING PARIDIGMS - Katherine
Jones-Garmil

* AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: 125 YEARS OF EXPEDITION & DISCOVERY -
Lyle Rexer

* HIPPOCRENE U.S.A. GUIDE TO UNCOMMON & UNHERALDED MUSEUMS - Lincoln S. Bates
& Beverly S. Narkiewicz

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best wishes to all from
Dr Drum

the only Doctor NOT diagnosing Year 2000 Bugs!