DATE.....: Friday December 03, 1999
NUMBER...: 7-33129
TITLE....: MILLENNIUM FLAP
TYPE.....: ENGLISH PROGRAMS FEATURE
BYLINE...: TED LANDPHAIR
DATELINE.: WASHINGTON
KEY......: 799466
CONTENT..:
 
// ATTN: AMERICANA, TRAVEL//
[ED NOTE:  This piece could be repeated the week
between Christmas and New Year's, but no later than
Dec. 30.]
INTRO Not for a thousand years have a decade, a
century, and a millennium changed all at once.
It's the reason hotel rooms on New Year's Eve in
party cities like New York and New Orleans and
Paris have been booked solid for years.
Unprecedented celebrations are planned there and
elsewhere, especially in the Western World.  But
VOA's Ted Landphair says millennium scholars,
mathematicians, and other purists are spoiling
the fun.  If the calendar in common use
worldwide is to be believed, they say, the REAL
millennium change is a year away.
CART ONE music:  The Byrds: "Turn! Turn! Turn!"
from "The Byrds' Greatest Hits," cut 4, CDP-567.
 "TO EVERYTHING  (TURN, TURN, TURN)
 "THERE IS A SEASON (TURN, TURN, TURN) . . ."
(:10 to here; take under tape cut one and anncr
but NOT OUT)
 
TAPE CUT ONE:  CLINTON
 "Barely more than three hundred days from now,
we will cross that bridge into the new
millennium."  (:05 to here; tape continues; take
under ANNCR and out)
ANNCR During his State of the Union address this past
January Nineteenth, President Clinton talked
about a new government initiative called "the
Millennium Project." But there are those who say
he was beckoning the nation across that bridge
into the new millennium - and along with it,
into the new century and new decade as well - a
year too early.  Because if you accept the
Christian calendar, the Third Millennium won't
arrive until January First, Two-Thousand ONE.
BRING UP CART ONE
 "TO EVERYTHING  (TURN, TURN) . . ." (tape fades
out on its own)
ANNCR President Clinton is not the only one to get it
wrong.  The Boston Globe newspaper produced a
special section this year on the extravaganzas
expected at the end of the year.  As the
millennium nears, the Globe wrote, there'll also
be a burst of introspection - a toting up of
where we've been and where we're going.
TAPE CUT TWO:  ANNCR READING BOSTON GLOBE CLIP
 "THIS DECEMBER THIRTY-FIRST, WHEN THE END IS
TOLLED FOR THE 20TH CENTURY . . . " (:04 TO
HERE, ACT CONTINUES; TAKE UNDER AND OUT)
ANNCR But, officially, technically, and, yes,
correctly, the century, like the millennium,
won't end for one more year.
Some say it's just sticklers, pedants, and
mathematical "geeks" who are making a fuss.
Rolling over from the three nines in "1999" to
three new zeros in the year Two Thousand seems
like a proper thing to celebrate.
To which the perfectionists reply . . .  party
if you must, but right is right.  Don't call it
the new millennium or new century - or even the
new decade.
CART TWO:  MUSIC: Jefferson Starship:  "Millennium
Beyond," from "Windows of Heaven," cut 12, CDP-
18820
 "THIS IS THE MILLENNIUM
 "THIS IS THE FUTURE.
"THIS IS THE SOUND OF THE FUTURE . . ."   (:15
to here, immediately take under and out)
ANNCR Who's responsible for all this millennial
madness?
 You can blame Dionysius Exiguus [dy-uh-NEE-see-
us ex-IG-you-us], which can be roughly
translated as "Dennis the Short." In the sixth
century, this monk from Sythia in what is now
Ukraine devised the Gregorian calendar, which is
still in use.  It began retroactively with what
was thought to be the date of the birth of Jesus
Christ. Steven Dick, an astronomer and historian
at the U.S. Naval Observatory, which keeps the
nation's clock, says Dennis the Short started
his calendar with the year ONE, not zero.
Working with Roman numerals, Dennis had no
concept of zero.
TAPE CUT THREE: DICK  :12
 "YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH TEN YEARS BEFORE YOU
HAVE A DECADE. YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH A HUNDRED
YEARS BEFORE YOU HAVE A CENTURY.  AND YOU HAVE
TO GO THROUGH A THOUSAND YEARS BEFORE YOU HAVE A
MILLENNIUM.  SO THEREFORE THE NEW MILLENNIUM
CANNOT BEGIN UNTIL TWO THOUSAND AND ONE."
ANNCR Simple as that.
CART THREE:  music:  Robbie Williams:  "Millennium,"
from "The Ego has Landed," cut 2, CDP-19192A
 "WE'VE GOT STARS DIRECTING OUR FATE.
"AND WE'RE PRAYING IT'S NOT TOO LATE.
"'CAUSE WE KNOW WE'RE FALLING FROM GRACE
"MILLENNIUM. . .  ." (:18 to here; take under
and out)
 
ANNCR If we were to start a new calendar today, Steven
Dick believes, we, too, would logically start
with the year One.
TAPE CUT FOUR  DICK  :11
 "A LOT OF PEOPLE WOULD LIKE THE YEAR TWO
THOUSAND TO BE THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW
MILLENNIUM BECAUSE IT'S A NICE ROUND NUMBER.
WHAT IT BOILS DOWN TO IS COMMON SENSE VERSUS THE
LOGIC OF THE CALENDAR SYSTEM."
 (/////BEGIN OPT////)
ANNCR This controversy is nothing new.  The Library of
Congress has published a bibliography listing
hundreds of articles about the turns of
centuries and millennia.  In 1899, for instance,
the pope in Rome, the Times newspaper of New
York, and the president of Harvard University
all agreed that the twentieth century would
commence in 1901.  But German Kaiser Wilhelm and
the president of Smith College, among others,
insisted it would begin immediately, in 19-
hundred. We measure a life starting at zero,
with birth, the kaiser argued.  So if you live
to be a hundred, you're free to celebrate on
your One Hundredth Birthday. You don't have to
wait to One-Hundred One.  The same should be
true of marking centuries.
 Confused?  Wait till we factor in the decades.
The sixties, for instance.  Here's Steven Dick
again.
TAPE CUT FIVE:  DICK  :14
 "OF COURSE THE 1960s COMPRISE SIXTY, SIXTY-ONE,
SIXTY-TWO AND SO ON IN. BUT IN TERMS OF STARTING
WITH THE INITIAL POINT WITH THE YEAR ONE, YOU
HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE TEN BEFORE YOU HAVE A
DECADE."
(/////END OPT)
ANNCR American advertisers have no intention of
waiting until Two Thousand-One to mark the
millennium.
CART FOUR: NEW YEAR'S COUNDOWN AND CELEBRATION
 "TEN, NINE, EIGHT, SEVEN, SIX, FIVE, FOUR,
(etc., with noisemaking)"
 (establish and take under on cue, LEAVE AUDIBLE
UNDER)
ANNCR On Madison Avenue, the millennium starts this
coming New Year's Eve.
BRING UP NEW YEAR'S EVEN SOUNDS FROM CART FOUR
 (then take back under and out)
ANNCR More than two thousand companies have obtained
trademarks that allow them to call themselves
the official oatmeal, vacuum cleaner, beer -
even artificial fingernail - of the millennium.
More than two hundred of these companies work
the year Two Thousand into their millennium
trademarks.  Jesse Marshall is a trademark
administrator at the U.S. Office of Patents and
Trademarks.
TAPE CUT SIX:  MARSHALL  :14
 "IT'S ALMOST LIKE USING THE WORDS `THE GREATEST'
OR `SUPER' OR `BEST EVER.'  SO USING
`MILLENNIUM' IS JUST A HOT CATCH-WORD.  IF YOU
WANT TO GET TECHNICAL, THIS IS THE BI-MILLENNIUM
THAT'S COMING UP. BUT I DON'T KNOW THAT WE HAVE
ANY APPLICATIONS FOR THAT [NAME]."
CART FIVE  MUSIC:  Guy Lombardo's Orchestra, "Auld Lang
Syne," from "New Year's Eve with Guy Lombardo," side
one, cut 6, LP-11804
 (establish, then take under on cue and out)
ANNCR As you might expect, the U.S. Naval Observatory
will wait a year to mark the change of millennia
with a countdown and party at the close of Two
Thousand.  But interestingly, the Millennium
Society, a group of prominent Americans whom the
purists would say should know better, are
throwing a black-tie gala for five hundred
celebrants THIS NEW YEAR'S EVE at Egypt's Great
Pyramid of Cheops. The Millennium Society's
president has admitted it may be the wrong year.
But in his view it will be the first time in the
history of the species that just about everyone
on the planet will celebrate a holiday.
 Happy Millenn . . . uh, Happy New Year!
[SIGNED]
CART SIX  TRAILER MUSIC  The Jazz at the Movies Band:
"Auld Lang Syne," from "Sax at the Movies for
Christmas,"  cut 13, CDJ-3635
 (lasts approx. 1:00; may be faded out anytime)
neb/tl/nes