Restaurant Y2K

You own a restaurant - a really fancy, big-name restaurant. You make boodles of money, because famous people come eat at your restaurant, the word gets around... besides, you trained at one of those big fancy French schools for cooks, so you've paid your dues. And you're Greek, that helps....

Now, being a big fancy restaurant, you've got lots of bills to pay; food stocks, payroll, utility bills, and of course insurance. Big bill, that damn insurance, because being a big fancy restaurant, everyone and their mother sues you every time they trip over the edge of a rug, or burn their arm reaching over the candle on the table, or (glub forbid) wind up with food poisoning.

But your insurance company pays.... they'd rather negotiate on those nuisance
lawsuits than spend the time, and money, in court. Of course, your bill keeps
going up and up, and up.... But hey, that's one of the costs of doing business,
and being a big fancy restaurant, you understand and live with it.

Now, you receive a letter from your insurance company, explaining a new wrinkle
in the process. You check around, and all your other friends who own their own
big fancy restaurants, and even the ones with smaller joints, have received similar letters. The insurance companies are explaining, in advance, about a claim that they will NOT be paying, so don't even bother sending it in. They expect many restaurants, at the end of the year, will be experiencing a problem with their walk-in refrigerator and freezer units, and they will not be responsible for the spoilage due to this problem.

See where this is going yet?

That's right folks, the insurance companies have been warning them since summer
that they will not be responsible when and if the Y2K problem hits the major
utilities, and power-outages become more common than cockroaches behind the stove.... well, not THIS stove, of course, because this is a big fancy restaurant.....

Now, I don't really have too much of a problem with this... they gave them over
6 months to get some kind of backup system on line, i.e. a generator or a couple tons of ice - whatever, your choice, just make sure it works... makes good business sense, for both parties.

I heard this from a relative who helps out at the big fancy restaurant from
time-to-time, so I can't really verify the accuracy of his statement.... but he said the insurance companies were declaring the Y2K problem AN ACT OF GOD!!!!