esrosedotblog

OH NO

Someone, other than me, has finally gotten concerned about what we are going to call the decade we are in: Name That Decade. Timothy Noah in Slate runs it down for us. There was an offer of calling this decade the 'ohs' but other than saying 'oh' a lot, no one took it up.

I am even more concerned about all the other decades to come. When we talk about the Tens won't that just sound puny compared to other decade references like 'the Nineties' and, of course, 'the Sixties' which were actually sort of the last half of the numerical sixties and the first half of the seventies. But, no one says 'the Seventies'.

'The Tens' just sounds puny and insignificant next to these mighty numbers late in the last century.

What did they say about the period between 1900 and 1910? Not a lot I suppose as they were ramping up to WWI and that took most of people's energy.

It is a tough one. I will hang in and wait and go with the crowd.

Of course, as you can see from the illustration, the decade ain't always enough information. There are two gay nineties, evidently. The one I missed, the other I lived through.