End of the decade stories. A question

[JayFarrar]

We are talking about doing an end of the decade package at my shop.

And we get into when is the end of the decade argument.

I contend the decade ends at the end of this year. A copy editor argues that it is actually 2010 when the decade ends and the new decade starts in 2011.

I say, "so you mean 1990 was actually in the 80s?" and he says that technically that is accurate. I, of course, think this is the stupidest thing ever and thinks this goes back to the douchebag arguments on when the century ended. If it was 2000 or 2001.

I'm one of the nimrods that believes the new century started Jan. 1, 2000 and not 2001.

I'd go on for much longer, but I have some Nyquil in me and it is starting to hit.

So what say you, when does the decade end?

 

[JimmyHoward33]

For our purposes, we're using 2000-09.

 

[rpmmutant]

The argument goes we don't start counting from 0 to 9, we start from 1 to 10. Following that logic, the decade started in 2001 and ended in 2010. For the more practical, a decade starts at 00 and ends in 09. For the next decade, it will start in 2010 and end in 2019, and so on. It makes more sense, but technically, it's not the way we count to 10.

 

[buckweaver]

The argument goes we don't start counting from 0 to 9, we start from 1 to 10. Following that logic, the decade started in 2001 and ended in 2010. For the more practical, a decade starts at 00 and ends in 09. For the next decade, it will start in 2010 and end in 2019, and so on. It makes more sense, but technically, it's not the way we count to 10.

This.

For common-sense purposes, what most people think of as the first decade of the 21st century ends in 11 days.

But technically, the decade ends on Dec. 31, 2010. Otherwise, there's some 9-year decade out there getting short-shifted.

You might want to include an editor's note, similar to how Yahoo's Puck Daddy blog is handling its end-of-decade lists: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/The-10-most-embarrassing-hockey-moments-of-the-l?urn=nhl,209936.

(No, the first decade of the 21st century doesn't technically end until 2011. Save your bellyaching. But we've had nine NHL seasons and one stolen from us since 1999-2000, and Yahoo! Sports has decided it's time to rank the best and worst of the last "decade." Enjoy, and snark freely in the comments.)

 

[Shaggy]

Those who want to think Dec. 31, 1990 was the last day of the 1980s can go right ahead and confuse the hell out of everyone. I'll pass. The years that end with the same two numbers are lumped into one decade to me, and I'm not going to apologize for it.

Those who want to be technical like that probably think George Brett's home run in 1983 wouldn't have happened if he didn't have all that pine tar on the barrel of the bat. Technically, he broke a major equipment rule, you know.

 

[buckweaver]

Those who want to think Dec. 31, 1990 was the last day of the 1980s can go right ahead and confuse the hell out of everyone. I'll pass. The years that end with the same two numbers are lumped into one decade to me, and I'm not going to apologize for it.

Those who want to be technical like that probably think George Brett's home run in 1983 wouldn't have happened if he didn't have all that pine tar on the barrel of the bat. Technically, he broke a major equipment rule, you know.

That's a really dumb analogy.

No, you don't have to apologize for it -- that's the way most people think and you won't confuse your readers if you write "end of decade" stories in every year that ends in 9. Just realize that, at some point, you're saying there was a decade back in time with only 9 years. Which makes even less sense -- at least to anyone who understands basic arithmetic -- than the Eighties ending in 1990.

 

[RickStain]

A decade ends every second of every day. There is no single correct answer out of the two, so going by popular opinion makes sense.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Those who want to think Dec. 31, 1990 was the last day of the 1980s can go right ahead and confuse the hell out of everyone. I'll pass. The years that end with the same two numbers are lumped into one decade to me, and I'm not going to apologize for it.

Those who want to be technical like that probably think George Brett's home run in 1983 wouldn't have happened if he didn't have all that pine tar on the barrel of the bat. Technically, he broke a major equipment rule, you know.

That's a really dumb analogy.

No, you don't have to apologize for it -- that's the way most people think and you won't confuse your readers if you write "end of decade" stories in every year that ends in 9. Just realize that, at some point, you're saying there was a decade back in time with only 9 years. Which makes even less sense -- at least to anyone who understands basic arithmetic -- than the Eighties ending in 1990.

I'll give it a shot.

The decade that lasted nine years probably was 1 A.D. to 9 A.D. If using the birth of Christ as the year that the A.D.'s began, you can use year 1 (although some historians believe Tebow was born in 4 A.D. or thereabouts.)

Except for Doc Brown in the DeLorean, you never hear of a 0 A.D. Supposedly, time goes from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D.

Or, it might just be too early in the morning for me to be thinking of this.

 

[93Devil]

When you teach a child how to count and number groups in sets of 10, you start with 0 and you end with 10.

0.0 is part of 0-10 and 9.99 is part of 0-10. 10.0 starts the next set of 10 numbers.

10.0 - 19.99 is the next set
20.0 - 29.99 is the next set
30.0 - 39.99 is the next set

When the tens column rolls to the next highest interger, you have a new set of ten.

0.0 - 99.99 is a set of 100
100.0 - 199.99 is the next set

Does this help?

 

[JayFarrar]

Years are one of the few things counted backward as they go forward.

So, you don't start with zero, you end with it. The modern calendar is based on the birth of Christ, which was a not a fixed point in time. Historians just took their best guess, and then counted backwards, to get to the event.

At least that's my argument.

 

[SF_Express]

Hell, this goes back to the whole millenium business.

When we were counting down to Jan. 1, 2000, a lot of people said we were all wrong: The second millenium, they said, didn't end until the last second of Dec. 31, 2000. They all gave me a headache, and I stopped listening. It's all how you count your milestones, but however you slice it, it was a big deal going from the 1900s to the 2000s.

For my purposes, it's simple:

00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09

That's 10 years. That's a dec-ade.

Jan. 1, 2010 begins the next one.

But if you want to count it a different way, best I can tell, nobody gets hurt anyway.

 

[BTExpress]

Just realize that, at some point, you're saying there was a decade back in time with only 9 years.

And that decade was 1-9 A.D.

Don't want to have a year called "0"? Fine. Then you get nine years in your decade so all the subsequent ones don't look stupid.

 

[RickStain]

This really isn't hard. Both are correct.

The decade known as the 1990s ended in 1999. But the final decade of the 20th century ended at the end of 2000.

The century known as 1900s ended in 1999. But the 20th century ended in 2000.

The millenium known as 1000s ended at the end of 1999, but the second millenium A.D. ended at the end of the year 2000.

 

[Football_Bat]

Millennium, please. Two l's, two n's.

I know it's been a decade...

 

[OnTheRiver]

People who ***** about this kind of **** drive me up the wall.

 

[Clerk Typist]

Rick's right. Both work, though millennia last 1,000 years, and thus since the second one ended at the end of 2000, the century and the decade ended then too. Funny thing is, back in 1899, if you believe the newspapers, there was no big deal about the rollover to 1900. The general thought was that Jan. 1, 1901 was the first day of the new century.

Why did we become dumber in the last 100 years?

One more thing: Nobody paid attention to the Christian calendar until somewhere in the 300s (maybe 400s). Thus the backdating that may be a few years off. Romans were still using their calendar, and so on. Happy 7519 in a couple of weeks, all of you using the Byzantine calendar. How was that party in 7500?

 

[Den1983]

The argument goes we don't start counting from 0 to 9, we start from 1 to 10. Following that logic, the decade started in 2001 and ended in 2010. For the more practical, a decade starts at 00 and ends in 09. For the next decade, it will start in 2010 and end in 2019, and so on. It makes more sense, but technically, it's not the way we count to 10.

Bingo.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

We are talking about doing an end of the decade package at my shop.

And we get into when is the end of the decade argument.

I contend the decade ends at the end of this year. A copy editor argues that it is actually 2010 when the decade ends and the new decade starts in 2011.

I say, "so you mean 1990 was actually in the 80s?" and he says that technically that is accurate. I, of course, think this is the stupidest thing ever and thinks this goes back to the douchebag arguments on when the century ended. If it was 2000 or 2001.

I'm one of the nimrods that believes the new century started Jan. 1, 2000 and not 2001.

I'd go on for much longer, but I have some Nyquil in me and it is starting to hit.

So what say you, when does the decade end?

There's no year 0 A.D., so decades start with a xxx1 year and end with a xxx0 year.

This century started 1/1/2001. Same reason.

And Nimrod was a mighty ruler of ancient Mesopotamia who founded Babylon.

 

[UPChip]

Millennium, please. Two l's, two n's.

I know it's been a decade...

Excuse me, Willenium.

Sorry.

And where I come from, a Nimrod is a mighty hunter mentioned in Genesis and the mascot for an 0-5 basketball team. Anyone remember those commecials?

 

[Mystery Meat II]

It's when the all the wheels in the odometer turn. That's what people care about.