Millennia

While I certainly agree with Alex Ferguson ("George Burns Hits Big Time," Saturday Letters, Feb. 4) that it will be a wonderful thing should George Burns live into the next century, when he will have lived in three centuries and two millennia, I am afraid that Ferguson, and Burns, will have to wait one year longer. The year 2000 is not the first year of the 21st Century, it is the last year of the 20th Century. Centuries, like millennia and decades, begin in years that end with the number "1," as in "first," not "0" as in "tenth," "hundredth" or "thousandth."

A Fremont, Calif., company said Thursday that it acquired NewMillennia Solutions Inc., an Irvine maker of test services and products for high-performance semiconductors, for about $11.3 million. Credence Systems Corp., a manufacturer of automatic test equipment for the semiconductor industry, said in a news release that the purchase price includes its August investment of $4 million in financing for NewMillennia.

The opening line of Sylvie Drake's review of Spaulding Gray's new monologue at the Taper must have given a start to every Judeo/Christian reader ("Gray Matter That Leads to Discovery," Jan. 23). It read: " 'In the beginning there was the word,' wrote an unknown author many millennia ago." Is Drake an atheist, a born-again Zen or just kidding? Whatever her persuasion, she is ordered to do penance by lettering the following sign, sitting in the end zone at the Super Bowl and raising it as each extra point is attempted: John 1:1. We'll be watching!

Enough of Y2K. What were people eating in Y1K? Well, we have only one actual cookbook from around the year 1000, a collection of recipes from the court of 9th century Baghdad. It turns out that the caliph and his buddies were eating a lot of tandoori roasted meats, stewed lamb dishes perfumed with spices and rose water and sweetmeats made from ground nuts. The hippest dish was roast meat served with a sweet pudding (ju^dha^ba) that had been cooked under the meat to catch its drippings.

Doesn't anybody get it yet? The story is not that George Burns will be 100 years old in exactly one year. That's great, but it's small potatoes compared to what's coming up just five years after that. Burns was born in 1896. That means that on Jan. 20, 2000, he will be one of the very, very few people in human history to have lived in three different centuries and two different millennia. Hang in there, George. Nobody will ever top that finale! ALEX FERGUSON Whittier

Sodium vapor lighting is certainly unpleasant and depressing and would never be given first choice for aesthetic or safety reasons. However, even though I have never been acquainted with an astronomer, I do appreciate the accomplishments of astronomers in making and interpreting observations. I'm confident that an important portion of those accomplishments have been made possible by the sacrifices to safety and convenience made in accepting substandard outdoor lighting in San Diego County.

**DARYL HALL AND JOHN OATES. "Ooh Yeah!" Arista. "Ooh Yeah!" certainly is a far cry better than Hall and Oates' last album together, 1984's "Big Bam Boom," which for all intents and purposes might well have been called "Ooh Noooo!" Ultimately, though, the titular exclamation point of this record stretches self-congratulation well beyond actual merit. Do we hear an "Oh well," anyone?

Ancient grains may sound like something you'd find in a museum or at an archaeological site. But these days, they're turning up in the bread aisle. At markets from Whole Foods to Vons, shoppers can choose from a growing number of breads made with so-called ancient grains, including quinoa, amaranth, spelt and Kamut (a patented variety of wheat). Claims about the breads abound: They're said to be packed with whole grains, protein, omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants, and they're supposedly safe for people with wheat allergies or gluten intolerance, also known as celiac disease.

Enough of Y2K. What were people eating in Y1K? Well, we have only one actual cookbook from around the year 1000, a collection of recipes from the court of 9th century Baghdad. It turns out that the caliph and his buddies were eating a lot of tandoori roasted meats, stewed lamb dishes perfumed with spices and rose water and sweetmeats made from ground nuts. The hippest dish was roast meat served with a sweet pudding (ju^dha^ba) that had been cooked under the meat to catch its drippings.

A Fremont, Calif., company said Thursday that it acquired NewMillennia Solutions Inc., an Irvine maker of test services and products for high-performance semiconductors, for about $11.3 million. Credence Systems Corp., a manufacturer of automatic test equipment for the semiconductor industry, said in a news release that the purchase price includes its August investment of $4 million in financing for NewMillennia.

PRC Inc., a subsidiary of Litton Industries Inc., Woodland Hills, is one of 12 contractors selected by the General Services Administration's Federal Technology Service to provide information-technology services under the $25-billion Millennia program, the company said. The Millennia contract authorizes federal agencies, nationwide and worldwide, to purchase services including software engineering, communications and system integration.

Marine archeologists using an undersea robot to prowl the Mediterranean Sea floor discovered what may be the largest concentration of ancient shipwrecks ever found in the deep sea, one of them a Roman ship dating from before the time of Christ, the researchers announced Wednesday. The discovery, which spans more than 2,000 years of human history, offers an unusual glimpse into mankind's maritime past, experts in marine archeology said.

Beneath the jagged peaks of the Caucasus mountains, a brigade of Georgian grape pickers stumbled through weeds and ragged vines to bring in the harvest for a local winery. The newly privatized vineyard, located in the heart of Georgia's wine-growing region northeast of the capital Tbilisi, was a far cry from the neat, sandy vineyards of France or California.

Doesn't anybody get it yet? The story is not that George Burns will be 100 years old in exactly one year. That's great, but it's small potatoes compared to what's coming up just five years after that. Burns was born in 1896. That means that on Jan. 20, 2000, he will be one of the very, very few people in human history to have lived in three different centuries and two different millennia. Hang in there, George. Nobody will ever top that finale! ALEX FERGUSON Whittier

While I certainly agree with Alex Ferguson ("George Burns Hits Big Time," Saturday Letters, Feb. 4) that it will be a wonderful thing should George Burns live into the next century, when he will have lived in three centuries and two millennia, I am afraid that Ferguson, and Burns, will have to wait one year longer. The year 2000 is not the first year of the 21st Century, it is the last year of the 20th Century. Centuries, like millennia and decades, begin in years that end with the number "1," as in "first," not "0" as in "tenth," "hundredth" or "thousandth."

Sodium vapor lighting is certainly unpleasant and depressing and would never be given first choice for aesthetic or safety reasons. However, even though I have never been acquainted with an astronomer, I do appreciate the accomplishments of astronomers in making and interpreting observations. I'm confident that an important portion of those accomplishments have been made possible by the sacrifices to safety and convenience made in accepting substandard outdoor lighting in San Diego County.

PRC Inc., a subsidiary of Litton Industries Inc., Woodland Hills, is one of 12 contractors selected by the General Services Administration's Federal Technology Service to provide information-technology services under the $25-billion Millennia program, the company said. The Millennia contract authorizes federal agencies, nationwide and worldwide, to purchase services including software engineering, communications and system integration.

The likely creation of a huge new Arctic territory for Eskimos marks a watershed in Canada's efforts to address the many longstanding grievances of its native peoples. But the prospect of the new realm has pitted Canada's various aboriginal peoples one against the other, as they argue over how best to achieve their ultimate goal: self-government.