Ponder this:

Saturday, January 1, 2011

2011

It is a new year now.
It is no longer 2010, and this is my helpful reminder to those of you who might not deal with dates a lot.
Go through your checkbook and put "2011" in the year blank on all the checks.


2011!  ...which, by the way, I wasn't sure I would live to see. I don't mean last spring I wasn't sure. I mean when I was twenty. I couldn't imagine living in a year that didn't begin with 19.
Having read the book, I think that I couldn't imagine living past 1984
Long, long ago, probably when I was about twelve, I calculated the year that I would be able to retire and came up with 2013. 
Bizarre. 
Unfathomable.


All that aside.
I've decided to use "2011" instead of "11." Plain old 11 could be November, or the day after he 10th, or the year. It confuses me. In the last century, only between 1932 and 2000 (inclusive) was it safely cogent to abbreviate the year to two digits. Now that I think about it, I don't know why I didn't have that trouble with 2010 (*see below).
I like the way "2011" looks. The first two numerals can be nice and rotund and whimsical, because they have those two nice strong posts behind them to lean against, to keep them in line.
2010: My handwritten zeros never look the same, especially when there's a completely different shape to form in between them. I didn't like writing that all year. *I used "10."
2009: Just a goofy number, isn't it? A pitcher-eared apple-cheeked Alfred E. Newman of a number.
Alfred E. Neuman
2008: My problem with 2008 was that sometimes I would make a little snowman out of the eight and sometimes I'd write it according to The Palmer Method . . . ∞ standing up instead of  overwhelmed, prostrated by the idea of its own longevity.
2007: I have a problem with 7s as well as 8s. I can't write them the same way twice consecutively. Sometimes they come out all flourishy and serifed . . . and sometimes they're nice straightforward over/down. 7. If the latter made a noise it would be a firm and slightly metallic anh-unh. And sometimes my "anh" wasn't long enough and the 7 looked like a 1.
2006: Too many round parts. I took up too much space with all those circles. On occasion I'd get carried away with all the roundness and my 6's tail wouldn't be quite visible: a problem.
2005: Once again, too many chubby little circles.
2004: Just too much going on with this one. Circles, lines, angles! 
2003: Circles!
Ionic Column






2002: Well, now. To my eye 2002 had a nice symmetry. It makes me think of an Ionic column.





2001: A weak sister to 2011. The roundy bubbly shapes were too much for the final digit's strength.  That poor final 1 was trying too hard and not quite standing up for itself.


Alrighty then. 
What to label this post but "quirks."

6 comments:

Hilary said...

That was indeed about the quirkiest ode to a date I've ever seen. You made me laugh. Thanks for that.

Friko said...

A riff on the numbers making up years!
Should be set to music!

Bright spark, aren't you.

Happy 2011, if you insist! Or Prost Neujahr!

(no, it's not a swear word, neither is it a sneeze)

Barb said...

Thank Goodness 2011 meets your approval, June. It's a good way to start the New Year. We would have had to scrap it otherwise.

morningbrayfarm said...

Love it, June. :D

I'm glad you're here in 2011.

"I like the way "2011" looks. The first two numerals can be nice and rotund and whimsical, because they have those two nice strong posts behind them to lean against, to keep them in line." Absolutely perfect!

Vicki Lane said...

Love these quirks! I was really enjoying writing 1/1/11 on my thank you notes.

Lord Wellbourne said...

Thank goodness we'll never have to write 2222--kinda like spelling banana.....