Letter: Letters : Nine-year decade

From Brian O'Carroll

Aylesbury, Bucks

The recent “is it 2000 or 2001?” debate
(Letters, 14 February, p 51) reminds
me of a story about an autistic person who had a talent for naming the day of
the week upon which a date fell—any date, past or future.

This person was asked, “Does the new century start in 2000 or 2001?”

“2000,” he replied.

“How is this so, since the first year was 1?”

“The first decade only had 9 years,” he replied. And hence, we deduce, the
first century had 99 years, and the first millennium was only 999 years in
length. But from then onwards, everything has the correct “decimalised” quantity
of years, and we can celebrate years with neat round numbers with conviction.

This correspondence is now closed—Ed