The Naughts

This time ten years ago, the world was in a bit of a quandary: what to call the upcoming decade? If you recall, there was even a panic over the ominous moniker for the first thing the approaching new year would bring- the apocalyptic 'Y2K'.

Then 2000 came and went; airplanes didn't fall off the skies and zombies didn't start roaming suburban streets; but there were still those who couldn't agree upon a name for the new decade. After all, it had to be something special to contend with such predecessors as the '60s or the '80s. The all-too easy choice, the 'ohs', seemed a bit too ubiquitous even for the American palate, and didn't quite stick.

And when from across the pond 'the naughts' arrived, it seemed to catch on momentarily, with the prospect of numerous lewd jokes stemming from a misconception that the word had anything to do with 'naughty'. Unsurprisingly, that didn't last, and the 'naughts' too went right out the window.

Which, in my opinion, is a real shame, because I can't find a single better word to describe more precisely the shambles of a decade we've had. In other words, this was a decade of nothing.

Nothing, of course, referring to accomplishments outside the realm of capitalistic greed. It was the decade of no answers, no recourse from such unimaginable horrors as 9/11 and the subsequent war in Iraq; the shocking debacle of economic recession, and Sarah Palin. And we haven't even touched upon Mother's Nature's hormonal tantrums like the '04 Tsunami or Katrina.

Perhaps the lack of an official name was only too portentous. After all, it has been a decade best forgotten and best unclaimed, and naturally we want to have naught to do with it.