“2005”

First blog of the year, and I’ll start by obsessing about the number 2005 (many of my friends complain about my number/date-obsessing). "2005" looks better to my eyes than any of the last few years have. "2000" was Fake Millennium Year, hence to be scoffed at (besides, far too many zeroes). "2001" would’ve had promise except that it had already been appropriated by Arthur Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, and consequently the year had this shifty look to it, as if it knew it was doing something wrong by occurring at all. "2002"…I have a problem with palindromes, they’re diabolical. "2003": too prime number-ish; characterless. "2004" had something going for it but on dividing it by four I was startled to get 501, which is the number of a bus I fell off once. But 2005 has a neat, classy, coolly mysterious look to it, plus it suggests that we’re actually well into the 21st century at last.

(Of course, none of the above is any indication of how the year will turn out to be, it’s just number-obsessing)