One hundred years ago, Americans referred to the year as "nineteen hundred and nine," similar to our present tendency to refer to the present year as "two thousand nine." But in 1910, people started calling the year "nineteen ten," short and sweet. And here we find ourselves at the same crossroads: will next year come to be known as the year "twenty ten?" Or will we break with history and continue to call it "two thousand ten?"

It's questions like this that tickle the history fan in me. But advertisers are interested as well — especially car makers. Their 2010 model-year cars are out, and they've got to refer to them in ads. But how to say the year??

It's little things like this — the myriad ways that advertisers try to anticipate near future trends so that, when they arrive, already-produced advertising is in line with them — that we don't get enough credit for.

There's a fun article about this stuff at the New York Times that's an interesting read.

So, when you ring in the new year in less than two months, what will you call it?