It's NOT the End of the Decade!

Tonight, I rant.

I'm sure you've been hearing it on the radio, or on the TV news, or in the countdowns in newspapers, or wherever. People keep saying that we're at the end of the first decade of the 21st century.

Not to throw a wet blanket on all of the celebrations and retrospectives, but... No. We're not.

In the same way that the rollover from 1999 to 2000 was not the end of the 20th century, this is not the end of the first decade of the 21st century.

It's elementary, really. When a small child is taught to count, she starts with 1 and goes to 10. She doesn't start with 0 and go to 9.

So why is it that adults keep wanting to count from 0 to 9? Who knows.

But, as for me, I plan to keep counting this decade for another year. That means it has another 367 days (give or take) to shape up before it ships out.