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Jodee Taylor

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January 4, 2010

Jodee Taylor: 'Twenty-ten.' Please?

By JODEE TAYLOR

Part of me says, "I'm in the media. I should be able to influence this."

Another part of me says, "Well, yeah, but it's print media."

Besides, lots of people think the media influences way too much as it is. But let me try anyway: I think everyone should call this year "twenty-ten."

See how awkward that is? I have to spell it out. I can't just take to the airwaves and repeatedly say "2010, 2010, 2010" ("twenty-ten," "twenty-ten," "twenty-ten").

But doesn't it sound so much better? And doesn't it make so much more sense?

Our forebearers didn't say "nineteen-hundred-ten" when the calendar turned to 1910. So why would we say "two-thousand-ten"? Is it because we've been saying "two-thousand-one," "two-thousand-two," etc.? (I tried to change that, too, so that everyone would say "twenty-aught-one" and "twenty-aught-two," but I didn't have this pulpit at the beginning of the last decade.)

So now I'm rallying all 12 of my readers (Hi sis!) and hoping they'll rally all 12 of their friends and we'll be up to a gross and it'll keep growing from there.

Plus, I've recruited influential broadcast media people. Ron Jolly thinks "twenty-ten" sounds good and he's going to try to remember to say it like that (and he won't have to continually spell it out). That will get the millions (or so he tells me) of listeners of "The Ron Jolly Show" on board.

Friends at Interlochen Public Radio said they'd try, so we've got both bands of the radio spectrum covered.

But what about the rest of the world?

I realized late last month that I needed a national voice. Any fruitful movement has to go national.

I started paying attention to who says the date -- including the ever-important year -- every day, figuring that would be a good place to start.

That led me to Drew Birns.

Who?

He's the "voice artist" and announcer for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" broadcast over and over each day on Comedy Central. (I realize that says something about my viewing habits, but I'll stand by them -- "The Daily Show" is genius.)

"Drew?" I wrote in an e-mail late in December. "Will you please say 'twenty-ten' when you announce the date? If I had an influential broadcasting job, for instance, YOURS, I would use it for good, not evil."

He agreed!

"Happy to," he wrote. "I start recording again in January, so I hope this old brain remembers."

(Plus, he wondered if his brother Dan, a former Interlochen camper, had put me up to this. Nope.)

Happy twenty-ten to all.

Jodee Taylor can be reached at jtaylor@record-eagle.com.

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