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  • Twenty-ten or two-thousand ten?

BILLINGS- A New Year...but what we call the upcoming years in the upcoming decade may not be as straight forward as previous years. As December draws to a close we venture into the year two thousand ten... Or is it twenty- ten?

Yellowstone County Museum Director Chaz Weldon says as a historian, he looks forward to the new decade clearing up the pending moniker.

"It's been pretty stumbling to refer to the 21st, the first decade of the 21st Century as being that of "two-thousand and one", it's just not an easy way to say it, said Weldon." "So, I'm glad it's going to be twenty-ten. "

Although Weldon prefers twenty-ten, he notes the difficulty of transition when using the date for upcoming events...

"In the summer of two-thousand ten, or, I mean twenty-ten, said Weldon. " See, I'm getting used to it myself."

If you've been paying attention to advertisements for the 2010 Olympics or the 2010 World Cup, the use of "twenty-ten" sounds fairly comfortable.

However, Weldon suggests some people might be conditioned to saying "two-thousand ten" because of pop culture references, like Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), which pronounces the title year as "two-thousand and one".

What do the people of Billings have to say?

Last minute New Year's shoppers seem to be split. Some, like Carla Peterson are set in their ways.

"I like the two-thousand ten because really, it's meant to be that," says Peterson. " In my personal opinion."

While Hansel and Gretel's Restaurant and Bar owner Levi Thanthuyne just likes the way twenty- ten sounds.


"No, no. There's no affiliation with it," says Thanthuyne. " It's just twenty-ten."

Or two-thousand and ten...

In any case, it may be apt to say: time will tell.

To watch this story, click here.