Seeing an old year out and a new decade in

Compared to the decades from 1920 to 1999, which are called "the Twenties", "the Sixties" and so on, the decade that began in 2000 and ends at midnight on Thursday has no accepted name. Some people call it "the two thousands", but this could also refer to the entire 21st century.

Using the word "naught", which means "nothing" or "zero" — and allows a play on the word "naughty" — a group calling itself Project Naughtie ran a campaign to popularize "the Naughties" as the decade's name, but without much success. Other proposed names include "the Nils" and "Nillies", from "nil", meaning "nothing".

In this blog's final photo of the decade, we see a musician playing on the streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans. One of the most dramatic and devastating events that marked this decade was Hurricane Katrina, which almost destroyed the city in August 2005. At least 1,836 people died; damage estimates exceeded $100 billion. But because we want to look forward to the "Twenty-tens" with optimism, we'd like to point out that tourists, the lifeblood of New Orleans, are returning and life in the city is slowly improving. So, happy New Year! Happy New Decade!