Y2K in 2024

We've come a long way on the calendar from the concerns of Y2K, when the calendar went from 1999 to the aughts of 2000. There may even be people who get on Jeopardy who may not get a clue framed with Y2K in it. And some might work at programming for an airline.

It was a HUGE computer deal back at the end of the 1900s. You see, calculating age always worked when you were subtracting the last two digits of years in the 1900s to determine age; it wasn't going to work and yield the right answer when you got to the last two digits of the aughts; 00 minus 99 would not make one, etc. You needed to require a full four digits to denote years.

This set off a TON of computer concerns when it came to having to expand the year fields to four digits from the traditional two that always worked fine. Savvy consultants pointed this out years before we got to 1999. After all, what's more predictable than the advancement of years?

Savvy consultants were ignored, but were paid well when the reality of the jump after 1999 hit the  IT people who work with the world's computers. Computer  people hate to make changes. Changes mean more testing, and that takes planning and effort. But finally they concluded, hey, we got to do something.

And they did. Two years of planning, meetings, changes and testing, and the world's computers didn't come tumbling down when we went from the 1900s to the aughts. We survived.

Well, someone missed the memo at an airline when they calculated that a form filled out by a woman who stated her birth year was 23. She wrote 23 because only two digits were allowed on the form. Of course a one-year-old didn't write 23, but a woman who was born in 1923 did.

So, when the form was processed by the airline they felt they were dealing with a one-year-old passenger, a passenger who at that age couldn't be allowed to travel alone. They sent a chaperone to accompany Mildred. Kirschenbaum to the airplane because she got classified an "unescorted minor." You see, 24 minus 23 is one. Too young to fly alone. No shit. How did a one year old get there to begin with? Questions not asked.

This is not the first instance of an airline not realizing they were dealing with a centenarian. It's happened before.

Well, Mildred, born in 1923, is a hale and hearty centenarian who used to be a travel agent. She likes to travel, except when the airlines think she's still in a stroller.

The encounter would be worthy of a Saturday Night Live skit. Mrs. Kirschenbaum had to explain the obvious: she wasn't a one-year-old.

It is not a "glitch" in the airline's computer system as described by the People magazine story. It's the airline's stupidity and non-Y2K compliance in designing their computer's program.

So, should Mildred sue? She should at least get an upgrade.

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