🚀 go-pugleaf

On Mon, 09 Jun 1997 23:35:25 GMT, the skies darkened, thunder struck, and 
the words of Maurilio Avalos echoed in our minds:

:
:You are wrong, wrong , wrong!! The new millennium starts ON January 1,
:2000

Oh it does?  Well then, back it up.  Allow me to prove differently.........
There are 1,000 years in a millennium.  The "a.d."s started with the year 
1.  There was no year 0 a.d. and can easily be proven with any number of 
reference books in your library.  If you want to do it the long way, count 
from 1 to 1,000 to figure out the last year.  Otherwise, just multiply 
n*1000, where "n" is the "nth" millennium and 1000 represents the number of 
years in a millennium.   The last year of the first millenium is the year 
1000 a.d.  Thus, the first year of the second millennium MUST be the year 
1001 a.d.  If you care to count again, then the last year is 2000 a.d.  The 
first year of the next millennium would naturally be the year 2001 a.d.

My mother once insisted that the last year of this century was also the 
first year of the next.  This is absurd, because you would lose a year 
every 100 years.  The first century, by this faulted rationale, would be 
the years 1-100 a.d., the next century would be years 100-199, followed by 
199-298, etc.  Ditto holds true for millenniums.  If you don't believe 
these numbers, just COUNT them one at a time.

I just can't wait until the year 2000 really does get here.  More likely 
than not, our President will make some sort of speech talking about the new 
millennium/century.  People will be partying hard in celebration of their 
sheer ignorance.  I'll be laughing my ass off the whole time!  Not that it 
really matters, since the change of the millennium by OUR calendar (vs. the 
Jewish, Chinese, and many many other calenders) is insignificant in the 
whole cosmic scheme of things.  Well, except for a large number of 
computers that will become very confused come the stroke of midnight that 
marks the first day of the last year of this century.
-- 
Till next time, as Yoda's cousin from the Bronx once said...
May da Foice be wid ya... BUB!
--------
John W. Vann
----------------
"I knew the Jedi.  The Jedi were my friends.  You sir, are no Jedi!"**

**a widely disputed translation of Jabba the Hutt's remarks to Luke 
Skywalker