I also notice, and perhaps it's just because of the modern age, we always refer to, say, the '50s, the '60s, the '70s, etc. I often say I like movies that take place in the '20s or the '30s. We've often don't need to say "the 1920s", since it was assumed, because we hardly ever talk about decades in general before the twentieth century. Now we'd have to specify, because soon when you say the '20s, you may think of the 1920s or the 2020s...
Okay, I guess it's not that big of a deal, though it just seems to me that recorded history before the 20th century always seems kind of vague and slow-developing that you'd refer to centuries as a whole rather than decades...it's the 1700s or the 1800s, that kind of thing. You can tell, through fashion and technology, the differences between the 1950s and the 1980s but I wouldn't be able to tell you the difference between the 1780s and the 1820s.
Anyway, yeah, back to Revned's point, it's not only this decade that's hard to refer to, it's the next. While the "ohs" (though awkward, and fits best if you actually call the years "oh"-something) and the "twenties" both make sense, the "tens" or the "teens" sound weird to me because they don't accurately explain what you call the years, as while you can say "twenty-something" or "thirty-something" you don't say "ten-something" or "teen-something". Though we know they're included and it's just the way the English language is, "2011" and "2012" do not have either "ten" or "teen" in them...
Maybe we should just take a cue from the Mega Man series and go with 200X and 20XX... (I like how with Homestar Runner they actually pronounce 20X6 as "Twenty Exty-Six"...)
Then you have all those people who debate as to whether the decades begin with XXX0 or XXX1. Everyone made a big deal when the year 2000 started (even without mentioning the Y2K bug), but no one seemed to care when 2001 rolled around. If we are to believe that the current calendar system's numerology is correct (I've heard theories that there are 700 years missing but that's yet another issue altogether) and that we don't count a year 0, that it goes from 1 BC straight to 1 AD, then yes, the new millenium began in 2001 and every decade begins at XXX1, not XXX0. But one number flipping on the dial isn't as exciting as all four, I guess.
Or, we could use the Chinese calendar. On Jan. 26, it'll be the year 4706. Which sounds all cool and futuristic, even though it's not.
