Friday, January 1, 2010

Twenty Ten

Having grown up referring to the years as "nineteen" something (short for "nineteen hundred and" whatever), and then enduring for the past ten years this odd business of "two thousand and..." (since pronouncing 2009 as "twenty nine" would sound the same as 29, "twenty-nine"), I for one am heartily glad to welcome this new Year of Our Lord, Anno Domini Twenty (Hundred and) Ten: for that's how 2010 ought be pronounced.  I expect or at least hope that this sensible usage will be the one that people adopt: apart from anything else, "two thousand and ten" is such a mouthful, two syllables longer than "twenty ten".

Happy New Year, one and all!

Let us pray for a blessing on the New-year.
V/. Thou crownest the year with thy goodness;
R/. Prosper thou the work of our hands upon us.
O IMMORTAL Lord God, who inhabitest eternity, and hast brought us, thine unworthy servants, to the beginning [or close] of another year: Pardon, we most humbly beseech thee, our transgressions in the past, and graciously abide with us all the days of our life; guard and direct us in all trials and temptations, that by thy blessing we may grow in grace as we grow in years, and at the last may finish our course with joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
— 1929 Scottish B.C.P.

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