Michael H says:

I’m 23 now and have spent the last decade in either high school or university. I hope to remain in school for at least half of the next decade because quite frankly, I’m afraid to stick my head outside of my educational institution and “meet” my place in the economy.

Any advice for me when that time comes, Mr. Dvorak?

Father says:

I have sent a couple emails in the search of the “truth”. The facts have been established by all parties.

Let me ask you this, as so many seem to need to bundle up a period into an even, nonordinal, set: if the 70s didn’t include 1980, then you must accept that Jimmy Carter was the first president of the 80s, yes?

I think everyone would agree that Carter was a “70s” era president. You see, defining an era isn’t as nice as those faulty nostalgic memories would have us believe.

To me (YMMV), the 1980s as a cultural phenomena started in 1976-77 with the Bicentennial, Star Wars (and soon after ET and Raiders), and ended around 1986-1988.

The 90s started by 1988 with the end of the Regan feel-good era, South Dakota vs Dole and MADD, and the last vestiges of the cocaine period, and fully contained the first Gulf War, and ended by 1996.

The millennia era started about 1997 with the explosion of wealth and the Internet, and ended in 2001 with the dot com bust and the Terrorist Attacks. The current Period of Crap began in 2001 and we’ll have to see if the crap continues this year or turns around.

FRAGaLOT says:

Ya know the argument about if there was a year zero or not is largely irrelevant, since no one was really counting the years accurately in the past two millennia.

Roman emperors were adding/removing and renaming entire months because they COULD; it was in their power to do so. Adding months named after themselves (e.g. Augustus, Octavius).

We have changed calendar systems far too many times to even claim that 2010 is exactly that many years since Christ’s birth. I think we all agree that Christ wasn’t automatically 1 year old the moment he was born.