Opinion

There was considerable media build-up leading to, and of course including, the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Seemingly every local and national news outlet printed or broadcast special editions or programs (we didn't join in, simply because we really didn't feel we could add very much to the saturation coverage, although we will report on the local 9/11 memorials in our next issue).There's nothing wrong, of course, with such commemorations (although the increased level of advertising for these special projects suggests that the tributes were not solely altruistic).But it is  a curious phenomenon that any anniversaries seem to take on tremendously more significance whenever their cardinal numbers end in a zero, like 10th, 20th, and so on. Why was last year's ninth anniversary of 9/11 any less important, and why will next year's 11th not generate anywhere near the attention…