Millennimania

1998 is going away fast. There's barely a breath or two left for us to get used to saying and thinking "only one more year" and it will be Y2K, 2000. The end of the millennium, the beginning of another. Just think: Those twenty-hundred years, centuries gone by, here one minute and then poof!

The word "millennium" is everywhere, like kudzu. I haven't counted all the places I've heard and seen it already. It's like the old radio sketches of "Chickenman" or the graffiti that said, "Kilroy was here": it's so ever-present that you have to remind yourself to notice it.

Making matters worse is the debate over when the millennium begins in 2001 but, because the 1900s will be over, many people are going to start celebrating in 2000. Who's going to have strength enough for the mathematicians' party in 2001?

Well, it is coming. We're going to keep hearing about it: "x" number of days until it, the best or the worst or the mediocre of it, what's ahead after we turn it. Be prepared. It is inescapable. Step right up and plan your parties for it.

It will consume us with resonating monotony. Some among us will become aficionados and collectors of the hours and minutes and seconds remaining. There will be songs and books and shows and menus and tee shirts to remind us of what's around the corner.

So - for one more year - you might as well party like it's 1999.

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