Let’s clear something up, OK? This morning, on the radio, they were playing songs from Rolling Stone’s top songs of the decade, because the decade is supposedly coming to an end. Baloney.

When we started the new century and the new millennium , some people wanted to do that in the year 2000. Wrong-o. 

When we count things, we start with one thing, not zero things. When we count 10 things, we start with 1 things and end with 10 things.

The first century started with the year 1 and ended with the year 100. The 20th Century started with 1901 and ended with 2000. The 21st Century – and the 3rd millennium – started in 2001 and will end with a year ending with a zero.

The current decade is 2001 – 2010.  Ten years, not nine. So we have one more year to go in this decade. Do not, for the sake of sense and sanity allow anyone to tell you otherwise.

Here is a table of the centuries, going back to Christ, plus some decades.