just procrastinating

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Zeros
Slate has an article about the new decade, which frighteningly is about half over.
The precise midpoint of the 21st century's first decade will arrive on Jan. 1. As I write, that's five days away. You'd think by now the English-speaking world would have given this decade a name. Back in the early 1980s, the New York Times tried to pre-empt all future uncertainty by pronouncing it the "ohs." But nobody bit.
I vote for zeros. The term "aughts" is just a little to dated for this modern world, and I can't imagine the kids saying "I was a child of the aughts". When someone asks me what year it is (you know when you meet someone with amnesia, and they ask what year it is?) I'll usually say two-thousand four. But that's quite a mouthful, so I think I should be saying twenty oh-four. Anyway, "the ohs" is a little too simpleton for me, so I'm sticking with the zeros. But ultimately, someone will probably end up writing a popular book that gives this decade it's name, and the media will just run with it.


 
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