December 30, 2012

Althouse: Finally, after all these years, not since the 90s, we will have a name for our decade!

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Althous: Althouse: Finally, after all these years, not since the 90s, we will have a name for our decade!:

I just realized that with the arrival of 2013, a great void will be filled. There will be an end to the lack of a name for the decade. With '13, will be in The Teens!

Don't tell me we had a name for the first decade of the new millennium. We talked a lot about what it would be called, and then it came and instead of calling it something, we just worked around the lack of a name. Don't tell me we called it the "ohs" or the "aughts." We did not. And we entered the second decade of the new millennium with the same problem. 2010, 2011, 2012... Don't tell me we called that the "tens." Obviously, we didn't.

Relief from the torment of namelessness arrives on Tuesday. Don't worry about 13 being unlucky. That's superstition. I am talking about real life. We need a name for a decade. I have fond memories tied with the 50s, the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, and the 90s. There's pizzazz and warmth and eclat and resonance in those terms. We've been empty and hungry for 13 years. The gnawing craving for meaning is over.

It's the Teens!.

This is written in a tongue-in-cheek style, but the problem is a real one. It is hard to think about things, and communicate them, if they don't have clear and simple names.

Posted by John Weidner at December 30, 2012 11:48 AM
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