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on april 20, eric harris and dylan klebold, two students at columbine high school in litteton colorado, arrived at the school with rifles and shot and killed twelve other students and wounded about twenty other persons and then killed themselves. they had also planted a number of bombs in an attempt to kill a much larger number of people, but none of the bombs went off. although this was one of a number of such incidents in the united states, it captured the public imagination more than any other.
during the year, many people professed concern that the coming of the next new year of 2000 would trigger widespread confusion and destruction because computers - which were seen as virtually controlling all human life - would not be able to process the two digits ”00” in many applications and would break down. despite the constant media coverage of “y2k” no actual panics were reported.
jenny wilson was frightened enough about y2k that johnny humored her to the extent of purchasing about twenty large cases of bottles of distilled water and placing them in their basement. (wal-mart did an excellent business selling water and other “supplies” to people taking precautions against the possible disaster.)
kim, now seven, was fascinated by the idea of y2k, looked forward to it eagerly and enjoyed trying to frighten jenny, penny, and eddie by talking about it.
penny made up her mind to leave johnny if the year 2000 arrived without incident.
on august 5, daisy wilson, who had been living in the seattle area for about seven years, celebrated her thirtieth birthday by watching television in her motel room with her two children, sean, aged 6, and marla, aged 4. she would have liked to go out and party all night with her pals, but her new social worker was a total bitch and on her case lately, and daisy did not want to risk having any babysitting plans she made mess up.
37. 2000
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