The new decade?

To the editor,

Interesting, isn't it, that, while President Obama's recent State of the Union address undergoes constant scrutiny, his arithmetically incorrect mention of 'the new decade' goes unnoticed?

Said error recalls a January 15th letter in the Buffalo News whose author shares the president's notion that Dec. 31, 2009 concluded the 21st century's first decade.

For the sake of argument, let's say that the writer, who happens to be a University at Buffalo professor, is correct in arguing, in effect, that counting A.D. time (or anything else) starts with '0' instead of '1'. These and other absurdities would follow.

A firstborn or only child would be branded the family's 'zero offspring.' America's founding president and her first bi-racial president wouldn't be first at all. They'd be zeros. The Messiah's resurrection would have occurred not on the biblical week's first day, but on 'Day Zero.' Or if you're counting the shopping days ‘til Christmas, today counts for nothing.

Finally, an invitation to the errant scholar. Please telephone me next New Year's Eve (2010). To my piano accompaniment, we'll bid farewell to the 201st decade to the strains of Auld Lang Syne.

Joseph A. Carnevale
Buffalo, NY