Hayes & Koetzner

[David1953]

The point of the whole rant was that we are here to enjoy wine (and read about it). I've had it up to here with new millenium this and end of the century that. Why couldn't Hayes and Koetzner just say Merry Christmas and let it go at that? Tell us about wine, don't try to make the column seem significant with that sort of drivel.

Regarding the various calendar systems mentioned here by other posters and when Jesus took his first breath, etc. - absolutely none of that is relevant to the original rant.

We are talking western world here, as this is where all the Millenium hoopla is taking place, and in the western world (i.e. Western European world, including America) we use the Gregorian calendar. In that calendar system the first year of our Lord (anno Domini) starts January 1, Year 1. His birth date is Dec 25,of year 1. This is the system we use, regardless of when the actual birth took place, regardless of what calendar other people in the world use. That is how we measure the passage of years here and now in the USA. 1 thru 1999 does not equal two thousand years, only one thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine - fact, historical and mathematical - no room for "opinion".

BTW we celebrated the beginning of the last year of the second Millenium, Jan 1, 2000, with Roederer (Calif.) and Moet et Chandon at a very nice party with a cool jazz band. Just because half the people there couldn't count either, didn't mean I was adverse to having a good time.

We will probably repeat the experience again next year to kick off the first year of the third millenium.