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When does the new millennium begin? Calendar theorists say it's a year away, on 1 January 2001. Y2K alarmists say it's a moot point, since society will crumble
when all the ATMs and pacemakers and garage-door openers seize up on January 1. Others don't much care, and just want to celebrate the fact that it's been 1000 years since we saw so many zeros printed on credit card vouchers.
Matt Drudge says insiders have told him a fierce debate about all this is raging among the staff of the New York Times. Some want to emblazon NEW MILLENNIUM! on the front page of the 1/1/2000 edition. Others primly point
out that the 1/1/1901 issue said that, and to repeat it now would imply that the Times
thinks centuries are 99 years long. Apparently this policy dispute has been raging for a month now. The rough and tumble world of city journalism ain't what it used to be. Our advice: Celebrate both. That's what we plan to do.
My guess is that most people 1000 years ago made the same decision.It was the DARK AGES, after all, and party excuses couldn't have been that plentiful in an era of holy wars, and declining literacy, and epidemic social diseases.
Unlike today. |
