Whachamacallit

Without weighing in on if this year begins a new decade or finishes one, what are we supposed to call it? I mean, how do we refer to ... this? Is it "two thousand ten" or is it "twenty ten"?

I was reading up on this debate, so as not to appear naive ... and came across an article that I'd hoped would answer my question.

It seems the very appropriately named National Association of Good Grammar ... or NAGG ... has decreed that the general population should be saying "twenty ten". I have a nagg-ing (ha!) question, 'tho ... if this is twenty ten, then did we just finish with twenty nine? And did we really decide to elect Bush Jr. president in "twenty"? (Actually, no "we" didn't ... but apparently someone did.)

NAGG's argument is that "twenty" follows "nineteen". And they're right, of course. They also suggested that the word "aught" should have been used for the placeholder zero in the past nine years. However, no one that *I* know walked around saying "Happy twenty aught nine" last year.

(It should be noted that NAGG also has issues with signs in grocery stores that read "10 items or less" ... arguing that they should read "10 items or fewer" and it was when I read this bit of information in the article that I decided NAGG ... was.)

Well ... whatever ya' call it, let's just have a good one.