And presumably the last year of this decade since many debated that the last decade began in 2001 and thus that that 2011 begins the next one. And there was never any decision on what to call the first decade of a century. Was there really any debate over that? And just how do we pronounce next year? Everyone's been saying "twenty-eleven," but is that correct or is "two thousand eleven" correct? The "twenty" pronunciation may have fewer syllables, but it just doesn't roll off the tongue the way saying "nineteen __" did in the last century. The novel and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey may be what prompted the "two-thousand" pronunciation used in 2000 to 2009 and it created fewer syllables than "twenty" or "twenty-hundred" or "twenty-oh__" would have had. And "two thousand eleven" isn't as big a mouthful as pronouncing 19__ as "nineteen hundred and __" "or one thousand nine hundred ___" would have been.
With centuries, the commonly used English labels happened to use counting terminology: 19th century, 20th century, etc. Some socially inept people, failing to understand the difference between English usage and math, used this coincidence as a basis for quibbling.
We don’t label decades the same way as centuries: for example, people refer often to the 1960s and never to the 197th decade. There is no coincidence of terminology to quibble over. Regardless of whether 1970 fell outside the 197th decade from the perspective of a counting quibble, 1970 has never been part of the 1960s in the context of how people use that label to communicate.
While words don’t have objective meanings, a dictionary is an excellent tool for confirming how a word will be understood in actual usage. Random House (via Dictionary.com) defines decade as: “A period of ten years beginning with a year whose last digit is zero: the decade of the 1980s.”
Interesting. It certainly seems too cumbersome to try to number decades rather than refer to them as the 1960s, etc. But since no name of the recently passed decade was agreed upon, how will be reference this decade in the future? We can always say " the first decade of the 21st century," but I can just imagine those who are debating the pronunciation of 2011 will not want to make sucha wordy reference
I was to have tomorrow off, but now have to work to get all the boxes in the warehouse open in time for inventory next Tuesday. We always have inventory after New Year's, but I'm glad it hasn't, as of yet been, on my birthday, January 11. I'll only be working for a few hours, though, and will have Saturday off. Inventory is always a dreaded time for those of us who work in retail and I've been through that industry since 2001. But right after the holidays has to be the worst time for this. Can't wait for that to be over.
Meanwhile, here is how my Christmas weekend went. My Christmas Eve with the family and our dinner(with lotto tickets placed at the table) and our white elephant gift game. My cousin ended up with the present I bought--an ice-pop maker from my store. I ended up with hot chocolate mixes from Starbucks. My regular presents from Mom were "The Simpsons Movie" on DVD (I hadn't seen it since it was in the theaters in 2007 and fell asleep when Fox aired it on Thanksgiving night), and gift cards from Target, Kmart, Rite Aid, Safeway and Subway. So far I've only been able to use the Subway one (one of the Subway is across from the park in which I live). Been waiting for the post-holiday shopping to die down before attempting to use the others. Walking into Kmart on Christmas Eve while drying my laundry at a nearby laundromat was an unsuccessful attempt to use my Kmart one, as there were too many people at the store that day. I've been too busy to get to some stores since Christmas ended and am wondering how busy it will be on New Year's Eve and how many stores will be open on New Year's day, a Saturday.
Christmas Day I was at home all day, except to cash in my lotto ticket from the night before. I'd won an other ticket, but nothing from the second one. It rained most of the day. The day after was horrible as I suffered from a nauseating headache and was in bed most of the day. Monday was back to work, with the Christmas music gone from the intercom. Our Christmas merchandise is now half off and Valentines merchandise has already been arriving and getting displayed.
It seems to have gone by fast. Tomorrow I expect one last Netflix movie for this year (arriving tomorrow) and to hear neighbors shouting and setting off fireworks before midnight. No real plans here and I don't know if the karaoke bar is having anything. And It's expected to storm on Saturday as 2011 rings in.
You are a complex thinker, and you're good at creating elaborate theories and projects. You tend to have a lot of technical knowledge. You love to learn how to do things.
You are innovative and competent. You can often see where others have gone wrong. You are also a bit of a skeptic. You aren't going to believe anything until you've investigated it yourself.
In the past I have rambled on about fear of having to go the grocery store on the eve of a major holiday, and have referred to those who do as as either someone who puts off shopping till that day or someone who unfortunately runs out of necessary items that morning. Well, I had to go to to the grocery store today but I had another reason that somehow escaped me earlier--not being able to go earlier in the week because of having to work all week and getting too tired for grocery shopping or other errands. This is what happened to me today.
I knew to avoid Safeway because it's the store everyone goes to in my town. I drove past them several times today without even bothering to glance at the parking lot. I knew it would be crowded. Savemart, on the other hand, is never quite as busy as Safeway, even the day before a holiday. So it was Savemart today. It had a number of shoppers, but was far from crowded, not the way I envisioned Safeway being today. The Savemart parking lot had plenty of empty spots and there was barely any pushing and shoving in the store. The worst that happened almost bumping another person's grocery cart and it wasn't even that bad at all.
And getting groceries wasn't the only errand I had to do today. My exhausting Christmas-week work schedule put me behind on laundry as well. This was done before my grocery run. My mom kets me use her machine and clothes line, but rain is expected tomorrow (it rained in my neighborhood throughout this week as well), so it meant going to the laundromat to dry my clothes. And I had to make two trips to dry two loads of laundry.
I went to laundromat I'd only been to at least once previously. It's never busy and is in the parking lot across from Kmart. Only two other people came to the laundromat today and during my first load, I walked over to a liquor store nearby to get a soda and the lady asked me if I needed help. Just looking, I said, then let on that I was drying laundry. "On Christmas Eve?" she asked. I replied that I didn't have time until today because of work. During the second load I walked over to Kmart since it was the only place nearby with a bathroom. I then looked around in hopes of spending my Kmart gift card (one of my presents today), but I just wasn't in the mood for shopping with all the crowd at the store.
Once the laundry was dry I headed to the store as mentioned already, then home to check email, Facebook and write this blog.
Have to go now. I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy holiday season.
This is one I remember getting I believe in 1979, when I was eight. After reading this blog entry today, I saw the Toys "R" Us ad and in it was Baby Be Good, a baby doll I got one year. I began to have something of a recollection of this toy a while ago, so it was strange that it turned up in in something in another person's blog today. Here is the doll (cut from the ad):
All I can really remember about this doll was that she came in a yellow polka-dot sleeper that was unremovable. Her thumb was shaped so it could stuck into her mouth. She came with a bottle with fake milk. You would squeeze her stomach when she sucked her thumb or drank her milk. The ad above says she also kisses, but I don't remember how that worked. I can't seem to find info on or photos of this.
I had a few baby dolls as a girl, including one I believe was a drink- and-wet kind, though I don't know what it was called. And I'm not sure what other ones I had. I remember hearing about this one, though I never had it. Why I never asked for it I don't know, it sounds like something I would have wanted. Here is a commercial for this doll:
And even though I remember Baby Alive, I never asked for one. I can just imagine how carried away I would have gotten trying to feed her and make her soil her diaper and then getting upset because I ran out of the play food mix. I guess I saved myself from all this by not having this toy. I could not help enjoy watching this Baby Alive commercial:
The girl smacks the baby's behind because she needs a clean diaper! LOL!
I remember having a Baby Alive coloring book, in which a girl named Kathy yearns for this doll. She checks her piggy bank and sees she has just enough money. She tells her dad, "I'm gonna buy a doll." On one page is the caption "Find Baby Alive," with the doll pictured among other dolls and toys on the store shelf. Later on the girl is seen "Getting acquainted" with the doll; "Getting Wet" (she's playing with the doll outside and it begins to rain); taking the doll with her to back-to-school night and to the burger joint. "I like your doll, Kathy" another kid from school says. "What a cute baby" says the man at the burger joint. A friend comes over and one page we see Kathy's dad telling her friend, "Time to go!' This is as much as I ever had of this one.
I also remember seeing this one advertised: Baby Wet and Care. Rather than just wetting her diaper after drinking water from a bottle, she--wait for it--got a rash on her bottom. She came with fake baby lotion that made the rash go away. How I ever escaped wanting this one I'll never know. I remember the commercial, which can be seen in this set of commercials on this clip:
Yeah, baby doll makers really tried to show little girls what being a mommy is like.
I just wish I had more info on Baby Be Good. I seem to remember a commercial for the doll, but nothing on You Tube.
You're the type of person who just naturally appreciates and respects others. You think ill of very few people. You are naturally open minded and nonjudgmental. You're a good listener, and you end up hearing many secrets.
You reach out to everyone during the holidays, and your acts of kindness and generosity are remembered throughout the year. You are easily touched this time of year. Even the right holiday card or little gift can move you.
Yes, there were lots of toy that I lusted after for Christmas when I was a kid and there are far too many to write about in just one entry so here is one story for now, with more stories to come later. I will be writing about those I mostly vividly and/or fondly remember.
The last year I ever asked for toys for Christmas was in 1982, when I was 11. Mattel put out a line of 4.5 inch fashion dolls called Dazzle and her Friends, seen in the commercial below:
This line originally consisted of eight girl dolls that came in a fashion made with sparkly fabric. A city playset, the horse (seen in the commercial) and four boxed fashion sets were also available. Just before the line was cancelled, two more fashion sets and four more dolls were added, including two male dolls. I never got any of these, but by then I was already tired of toys. Pictures can be seen here, though one doll is not pictured in her original outfit. The one with the long ponytails is one of the later-produced ones. She came in a striped leotard and matching leg warmers, a typical outfit of the 1980s. here she is wearing one of the boxed fashion sets. The other later-produced dolls are not pictured.
There were similar to line of small fashion dolls put out by Kenner a year or so earlier called the Glamour Gals. This line consisted of about eight girls. Each girl was produced several times in different outfits. The outfits were not removable, and some were painted on, such as bathing suits and pants. Some outfits were designed the same way in different colors. Two dolls for instance had the painted-on bathing suit, one in orange and the other in a purplish-red color. Two others wore similarly designed cowgirls suits with painted-on shirts and pants and fabric vests and hats. I only had two of these dolls, one I believe was the Shara doll in the sparkly blue dress and one of the Danni dolls, though I don't think it was one of those seen in any of the commercials.
Here is commercial with one of the Danni dolls (the user won't allow embedding).
