What year was it ­ 1992?

­ that Queen Elizabeth pronounced her " annus horribilis ,"

a horrible year?

The royal offspring were behaving

in anything but the well-bred ways expected of nobility. The queen capitulated

to protests about her tax-free existence. And the year was capped off

A lot of people would call

2001 America's national annus horribilis , and were glad

to notice that their calendar ran out of pages. Hang up a new one, pristine

and expectant, and hope nothing immortalizes a date in 2002 as happened

in 2001.

Actually, a year can start

on any date, and need not begin on Jan. 1. Some folks' "years"

may have started late and are still going on.

Beth Snipes' current annus

horribilis , for example, is not over yet. Or maybe she's having

two of them,