Bugaboo

By Melissa August, Ann Blackman, Val Castronovo, Matthew Cooper, Tam Gray, Daniel Levy, Ellin Martens, Anne Moffett, Bill Syken and Josh Tyrangiel

WORLD'S WACKIEST Y2K GLITCHES! Fears of global computer meltdown proved unfounded, but that didn't stop the media's relentless quest for millennium-bug stories. Our pick of last week's reports:

--A man returning a copy of The General's Daughter to a video store in Colonie, N.Y., was initially charged $91,250 for bringing the tape back 100 years late.

--In Denmark, a hospital computer registered the country's first baby born in 2000 as 100 years old.

--Fearing an infestation of Y2K bugs at midnight, a young boy in England cut the wires leading to his uncle's computer.

--In Rayong, Thailand, a street vendor was so worried about bank computers' erasing her life savings that she withdrew $2,700. The next day her home burned down and her savings went up in flames.

--The U.S. Naval Observatory, America's official time source, momentarily reported the new year as 19100--as did Al Gore's campaign website.

--A German salesman became fleetingly wealthy when a bank computer increased his balance by more than $6 million.

--A handful of prisoners in Venice and Naples, Italy, briefly had a century added to their sentences.

--The University of North Dakota scheduled a literature class on James Joyce for the fall of 1900--when Joyce was himself in his student days.

--Cash registers at Godiva stores in New York City melted down.