Learning to Count

Let's settle this, once and for all.

Pundits on both sides of the spectrum continue to scream at each other, each secure in the knowledge that their conception of when the decade stops and starts is correct.

Does the decade go from 2000-2009 or 2001-2010?

Both sides make good points.

If you operate under the assumption that normal people start counting at 1, we find ourselves in a situation where all these "Best of the Decade" lists are about a year too early. By conveniently ignoring the fact that 10 is the last year in a decade, everyone has gone crazy trying to both name the decade and summarize it (nine years in) by reducing over 3,285 days worth of events to a pithy list of 10 things that sum up a decade by dispensing with most of it.

On the other hand, in the context of a decade, it is convenient to to count ten years from 0 to 9, as in accepting that the 60s were from 60 to 69. One, because most things are better when they end in a 69. And two, as I have said, it is very convenient to stop at 9, and also because it seems weird to say that the 60s were from 1961 to 1970, which is exactly what those few naysayers are, um, saying when they argue that the decade ends in 2010.

I prefer to accept the latter way of thinking. That is, the decade runs from 2000 to 2009. Of course, I am a creature of convenience, and will often watch whatever is on if I can't find the remote, with the possible exception of The Jay Leno Show.

And also, saying that 1970 is a part of the 60s sounds absurd. Perhaps it isn't, and there is a perfectly logical explanation involving mathematics that explains why. However, I am an English major, and it was my understanding that there would be no math.

Therefore, in the interest of avoiding a headache from too much thinking and because, really, who cares, I hereby accept the proposition that the 00s ranged from 2000 to 2009.