January 3, 2000
Web posted at: 2:58 p.m. EST (1958 GMT)

SEATTLE (CNN) -- We have a doozy of a New Year's hangover here.

Our headache won't be soothed by orange juice and champagne. Bring on Seattle coffee and the newspaper, whose headlines glare with merriment without incident.

While the world partied, Seattle was the party pooper. On the heels of an arrest of a man allegedly bound for Seattle with bomb-making materials, Mayor Paul Schell canceled the celebration that could have brought tens of thousands of people to the Space Needle.

So we sat in our kitchens, paying year-end bills, throwing away 20th-century clutter and looking up at the television every time the clock hit midnight somewhere else in the world. We rationalized that watching TV just might be the best way to soak in the sensation of this big date change.

But then, sometime around halftime of the Sun Bowl, we flipped back to the news to see people greeting midnight in Bethlehem, where faces in the crowd showed no fear. Within the next few hours, we saw revelers in Rome, partyers in Paris and Londoners light up at fireworks. No reports of terrorism or trepidation.

As midnight bore down on the United States, our mood in Seattle turned to gloom. TV mocked us with images of people jammed around Times Square, more along the Mall in Washington.

And there were the jokes about Seattle. Jay Leno staged a skit showing three bored men in suits (by the way, Jay, we don't wear suits in Seattle). Somber network correspondents did live shots in the middle of deserted streets, which seemed like a kind of joke, too.

But what if the mayor were right? Seattle is home to the world's richest man, and to symbols of capitalism ranging from Starbucks to Microsoft to Amazon.com. Did we really want to risk it?

Midnight came to Seattle at last, with a few fireworks shot from the Space Needle, a sip of champagne, a kiss for loved ones and a gnawing feeling of disappointment.

But I think Seattle will figure a way to have the last laugh. After all, we know how to read calendars here, and the real millennium starts on January 1, 2001.

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