Stephen Jay Gould, who holds Harvard professorships of zoology and geology, bears his learning lightly. He has succeeded in writing a most enjoyable, scholarly treatise on the difficulties of composing a calendar to represent the passage of astronomical time with accuracy and convenience. Professor Gould calls attention to these difficult and historic means of attempting to reconcile them, as laymen now argue about the date which should be regarded as the beginning of the third millennium, New Year's Day in the year 2000 or 2001. He concludes that most people will probably uncork the millennial champagne sooner rather than later.
By Patrick Skene Catling
