... here, Larry (which I guess is an interesting thing to do in a thread about the Pope!), if counting always starts with one and not zero, why are we not one year old the day we are born, thereby remaining in "year 1" until the next birthday, which would start our "year 2", and so?

I think I recall that some Asian cultures state their ages in this way, which would, of course, be consistent with our calendaring system.

No matter how you designate it, though, one year hasn't ended until 365 days (more or less) have passed. And one century ends AFTER 100 years have passed. And one millennium ends AFTER 1000 years have passed. And the next millennium doesn't start until 00:00:01 1-1-2001!!

<g> ----- jim o\-S