(Originally appeared in Lognet 99/1)

Sau La Nu Noipli Tisra (From the Substitute Editor)

His naval duties have taken our Editor, Terry Smithwick, off into the bright blue yonder, and it’s been a long time since we had an issue of Lognet. So I’m putting aside La Logli, and doing what I can to complete the last Lognet of the ones millenium. The “ones millenium”? Don’t you mean the second millenium?

No, I don’t. This turning point seems to me the ideal time to rectify our identification of centuries and millenia. Can I be alone in finding it a bore to mentally translate “the fifteenth century” into “the 1400’s”? Here, at the end of the nineteens century, or nineteen hundreds, we who are aware of the power of zero (so that 0000 to 0099 was the zeros century), and who moreover are dedicated to our logical language, should stand together for a logical and consistent form of reference to these periods of time. How shall we do it in Loglan? This was discussed some time ago, but I don’t believe we came to any firm conclusion.

I’ll propose la Melio Nefo Heknie for those awkward 1400’s, (1400-1499). Between now and the next Lognet, let’s agree on a usage. And let’s allow it to rectify our English usage. Your inputs, please.

While we’re being logical, let’s think about dates. Month, day, year—are you crazy? In Hungary the preferred usage is year, month, day: this is great, computers can sort in chronological order without any further ado. Hungarian addresses also cleave to the ‘greater before lesser’ principle: city and postal code, street name, house number, floor number, apartment number is the preferred order. The recipient’s name still comes first, which is perhaps not utterly logical unless you consider human individuals as comprising more than just the city they live in. I can accept that. And universally, the family name precedes the given name.

Do you recall that Sellers Peter movie, “The Mouse that Roared”? A tiny, Ruritanian country declares war on the United States, having observed how those countries that have been vanquished in war by the USA are helped into a far better situation than they were in before their war.

Well, why shouldn’t Loglandia undertake to rectify ths defective usage that’s prevalent in this great country that’s the home of The Loglan Institute?

—Hue Liq Aleks