Letter: What's in a date?

Sir: What are we actually going to say when the millennium arrives? My grandmother, recalling the early years of this century, talked about "oh two", grandpa talked about "ought two". Jane Austen (Persuasion, chapter 8) says, "That was in the year six".

Two thousand and one? Two thousand and four? Twenty two? Twenty one? Oh oh? Suggestions please.

MARY HODGES

Oxford