So, it’s a new year. And indeed a new decade, unless you feel that the decades have to sync up perfectly with the centuries. I don’t. We don’t refer to decades as part of a sequence as we do with centuries (as in ‘the twenty-first century’), we refer to them in terms of the digits that identify them. Thus it doesn’t make any sense to consider, for example, 1980 as part of the 1970s.
On the subject of naming decades, we are no longer in the preposterously-named ‘noughties’. I remember thinking around about 1999-2000, when people were jokingly suggesting this name and thinking it was terribly amusing, that there was a real danger that the name would stick, and that by the end of the decade the joke would have worn very thin. Alas, I was right. Nobody seems to know what we’re going to call this new decade, though.
It remains to be seen whether we will now go back to referring to years as if they were a pair two-digit numbers rather than a single four-digit number. Personally, I don’t think that talking about two-thousand-and-whatever will get too unwieldy until 2021, but I suspect it might be better to go back to the old nomenclature sooner before we all get too used to the current one.
2009 has been a peculiar year. It’s certainly the shortest-seeming year I have had so far, largely because almost nothing has happened all year. My general situation is pretty much exactly the same as it was twelve months ago.
The new year got off to a good start. We saw out the old year with a barbecue, and much drinking. Clocktails were enjoyed, although this time around they were just randomly generated rather than being derived from the time. Some were very nice. Others less so. In the morning we had another barbecue for breakfast. Some might claim that barbecues are exclusively a summer activity. They are mistaken.
So here’s to the new year. Let’s hope it’s an improvement over the old one.
An interesting idea about decades and one I think quite correct. One interesting niggle that emerges is that the year 2000 is part of the same decade as 2001-2009, but not the same century or millennium.
Good to see your New Year’s went well. 2009 did seem to fly by for me too (except, obviously, towards the end at which point it was tortuously slow). Let’s, indeed, hope for that improvement in this year.