This Will Be Our Year

by Zoë Pollock

Jack Stuef would like you to call this year by its rightful name:

The illogical continuance of the thousands format is just another sign of the end of world civilization. The double-digits format is practical and streamlined, while the thousands format is whimsical and overfed with syllables. “Twenty eleven” is utilitarian; “two-thousand eleven” is a hedonistic ode to excess. ...

The double-digits format is change. It is progress. It is the future. Not the speculative future; the actual future. And when we hold on selfishly to things that no longer work, we begin to tear down the whole history of progress we built. It’s like the fall of Rome all over again, but with a lot more fat people.

2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan