Your day is coming

What years make up the 4th millennium BCE? ...

4000 BC through 3001 BC

... and when did it end?

Apparently it ended by 3000 BCE. So the third millennium would be 3000 BC through 2001 BC; the second would be 2000 BC through 1001 BC; and the first would be 1000 BC through 1 BC.

The next year after that was year 1 AD or 1 CE, whatever.

It's hard, you know, you go your whole life thinking in terms of years B.C. and years A.D. and you're a total atheist but that's okay because "B.C." and "A.D." are not religious terms. They simply identify a turning point. And then all of a sudden everything you read changes "Before Christ" to "Before the Current Era" and changes "Anno Domini" to "Current Era". WTF! I don't know what BCE is. I don't know what CE is. They couldn't leave that alone? Does the religious undertone of the old standard bother people so much that they had to change it? I guess it did.

I wonder who it was, anyway, who couldn't let well enough alone. Some fool. You know, there still are actual problems that need to be solved in this world.

Likewise with using the word "they" (which was plural when I learned it) in place of "he" or "she" because somebody has a bone to pick with history. Why should that affect me?

And when I joined the workforce, if you had to take the day off you would "call in". Now, you "call out". WTF.

And when I learned geography, the word was "oriental", meaning "from the east". Now the word to use is "Asian". WTF. I didn't know until I heard Jon Stewart on the Daily Show some years back make fun of an old guy for using the word "oriental". I didn't find that funny.

Just you wait. Wait until you're an old fart like me. Then you'll see. You don't know who the guest host is on Saturday Night Live. The actors from your favorite movies now look dodderingly old, and actors in new movies look like they're 14. And people go changing words just for the hell of it. You'll see. You'll see, and you'll be saying then what I say now:

Leave the goddamn language alone.

"Data may exist" on the sheet I'm deleting. They seem unsure

It's not the most current version of Excel, I'll give you that. But every time I delete a sheet I get this oh, so stupid stupid version of an are you sure message:

They're not even sure how many sheets I'm deleting. Sometimes it irks me.

That reminds me ...

Policies for Economic Growth (the part about inflation in the 1970s) (along with an old Interfluidity post) lead to questions comparing the US and UK baby booms after WWII.

That leads to Post–World War II baby boom, which refers to the "UK Population Pyramid".

That brings me to Demography of the United Kingdom. The population pyramid wasn't interesting, but

The UK's population is predominantly White British

raised an eyebrow, so I followed the link. Found this:

For 2011, in England and Wales, the White British self-classification option included the subcategories of: White English, White Welsh, White Scottish and White Northern Irish. For the 2011 census in Scotland, the White British category was broken down into two different categories: White Scottish and Other White British. For the 2011 census in Northern Ireland, the White British classification did not appear, the only choice being ‘White’.

That just seems like a lot of going out of the way to avoid offending white people who disagree with each other on everything except their whiteness. Probably related to Brexit motivations, and to separatist Scotland tendencies and the like.

Also, this:

There were calls for the 2011 national census in England and Wales to include an extra subcategory so people could identify their ethnic group as Cornish.

That reminds me of a funny theme in W1A (on Netflix).

It used to be WIS CON SIN

Check an old dictionary. The first "s" was part of the FIRST syllable.

These days, it seems to be WI SCON SIN. The first "s" is part of the SECOND syllable.

When did that happen?

I first noticed it during the TV hyperactivity on the night of the Presidential election last November.

How old is Cher?

Now... what the hell was I gonna ask?

Life's little ironies

1. anti-war protest turns violent.

2. the news reports it, but fails to point out the irony.

Excel Help

They tell me NOT to use the SmartTag Object, but they DON'T tell me what to use instead.