ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 31, 1996 TAG: 9612310068
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
The world, it's often said, is made up of two kinds of people.
In the case of the next millennium, those two kinds are: The fun people and the correct people.
The fun people are those who salivate at the thought of midnight Dec. 31, 1999. That won't be just another changing of the calendar year, but a transformation into the third millenium Anno Domini.
The fun people take this new millennium thing very seriously, and intend to revel with once-in-a-thousand years enthusiasm.
The fun people even have their own theme song: a 1980s hit by the artist who at the time had a pronounceable name but now goes by a vague symbol. As we all know, the artist formerly known as Prince sang, ``Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999.''
The correct people have no theme song. (Nor would they consider adopting one written by somebody whose name is a symbol, but that's another story.)
But the correct people, a k a ``party poopers,'' also take the ushering in of the new millennium very seriously. Much more seriously, in fact, than the fun people.
The correct people have been doing some millennium related research and have some bad news for the fun people. The millennium milestone is a little further away than you think. It won't begin on Jan. 1, 2000, but on Jan. 1, 2001.
How's that? Well, the first century A.D. ran from 1 through 100 A.D. It started out that way because, in a highly controversial ballot proposition conducted in 4 B.C., Roman voters decided they didn't want to live through something called ``the Year 0.'' So they just skipped right from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D.
Anyway, the correct people would like to point out that the second century A.D. ran from 101 through 200. The third century from 201 through 300, the fourth century from 301 through 400, and so on.
Projecting that forward, we arrive at the twentieth century beginning on the first day of 1901 and therefore ending on the last day of 2000.
That settled, plenty of other problems remain. What will the technically correct people do on Dec. 31, 1999, as the ball in Times Square is dropping and 99-plus percent of the world's people are getting ready to celebrate ``the next millennium?''
Will the fun people latch onto this confusion to unduly celebrate ``the next millennium'' two years in a row? Who will put a stop to such nonsense?
What will we call the next decade? The double zeroes? The Oh-Ohs? The double naughts?
And what will the fun people use for a theme song? How much fun can it be to ``party like it's 1999'' if you're merely celebrating the second to last year of the millennium?
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB