The year 2000 is history. This was it-the Big Bang. Two thousand zero-zero. MM. We lived it. Or, at the very least, we lived through it.

The year 2000 began auspiciously. Remember the Y2K Crisis? That was the year's first millisecond. The next 366 days featured a razor-thin Presidential election, the sinking of a Russian nuclear submarine, the crash of a Concorde jet, the emergence of Napster and the phenomenon of "Survivor."

All in all, an interesting year but nothing rated "once-in-a-millennium." In the end 2000 was a hanging chad, a year of inconclusive decisions and unfinished efforts. Whatever was supposed to happen didn't. 

Apocalypse? Later. Nostradamus predicted terror raining down from the skies but the Y2K bug didn't strike until November 7, Election Day. 

And what about all of those pie-in-the-sky forecasts about flying cars and food pills and robots to do your laundry-a technological utopia devoid of chaos and disorder? We can finally say with certainty: never have so many been so wrong about so much. 

The fantasy of the year 2000 did not deliver. The annus mirabilis did not arrive. The most anticipated moment in human history came and went. And, basically, it left a blank.

If something spectacular had occurred-if Elvis Presley had magically reappeared in the middle of Times Square singing "My Way" in a white cape-then maybe we could say that fantasy and reality had briefly merged to match our expectations. But it didn't.

On the bright side, at least it wasn't 1976, the American Bicentennial (yawn), or George Orwell's 1984 (anti-climactic). It was an interesting year and we learned something valuable: sometimes a year is just a year.

No one really expects a Kubrick-like odyssey in 2001. But we haven't given up hope. It's time to cross that bridge to...whatever...and start anew. The year 2000 may be history but the future is still waiting to happen. 

Illustrations  (top to bottom): F. Strothman, 1900; Fred T. Jane, 1896; Fred T. Jane, 1896; Fred T. Jane, 1896 from the collection of Eric Lefcowitz