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	The First Y2K Suicide By Declan McCullagh July 12, 1999 It's about time. Given all the hysterical foofaraw and sappy sentimentalism devoted to this Y2K thing, we're gratified to see its first real-live -- make that real-dead -- casualty. Oh, it's not that we're unduly morbid or anything -- at least not any more so than anyone else as curmudgeonly as we happen to be. It's just that journalists were itching to write that headline, and it's about time we got it over with. Besides, it's not like it's a true Y2K death. Those have yet to happen. And after reading Patriots, they're not difficult for us to imagine: Bulldozers crushing prams, medical robots doing the jitterbug with some poor sap's intestines, or doomsayer par excellence Paul Milne accidentally falling down on one of his own buried land mines when stumbling to his outhouse one evening. Nah, this link is much more tenuous. "Stress from dealing with the Y2K computer problem drove a 40-year-old man to commit suicide last year," the Associated Press reported on Friday. More AP: "The man routinely put in 15-hour days at the Osaka steel sales company, where he was in charge of computer software... The man, whose name was withheld, was ordered to ensure that more than 600 pieces of software would be free of the millennium bug... He jumped to his death from their apartment building in February 1998." For the record: We express our deepest sympathy to his widow, along with our appreciation for providing us with such a perfect example of finger-pointing gone awry. It's natural, of course, to look for explanation and meaning in tragedy, but, geez, Osaka Corp. hardly forced the fellow to jump. And last we checked, window ledges were perfectly Y2K-compliant.		FEATURES Book Reviews Y2K already has spawned its own genre. We tell you what books are worth buying. Chip 'n Little Cartoons Chip 'n Little goes on TV Chip 'n Little visits John Koskinen Chip 'n Little saves the world Warning: This cartoon has been called "foolish and tasteless." Y2K from A to Z Y2K Haiku Traditionalists may be shocked. Mad Cow Culture What does Y2K have in common with today's Mad Cow Culture? Answer: Everything. Declan McCullagh's Y2K articles Psychology of Y2K LATEST NEWS As of December 31, 1999 Get Your T-Shirt Quick Bill Gates Does Y2K Reader Feedback A Sarcastic Calendar Cooking After the Apocalypse A Real Y2K Disaster Hitchhiker's Guide Meets Y2K