COLUMN: When is it?

Former National Basketball Association player and now NBA analyst Charles Barkley suggested the NBA start its season on Christmas Day to improve viewership.

The professional basketball league has historically started its season in October, but Barkley thought the NBA may get more attention with a shift in its schedule. If the NBA started on Dec. 25, the sport wouldn’t have to compete with the dominate NFL in winter. If the length of the NBA season remained the same, NBA playoffs would only have to compete with baseball in July and maybe some of August.

Baseball is fortunate as its season starts in late March and ends that fall in the same calendar year.

I just want to know what to call seasons and other items that overlap into the next year. I appreciate government and the fiscal year ideal and definition. For example, Union County is working on fiscal (budget) year 2026. It begins July 1 and ends June 30, 2026. The fiscal year is based on the calendar year the budget stops. I wish others had a more definitive description.

I know, it’s not the most important thing in the world as this has Jerry Seinfeld stand-up vibes. I think knowing what to call it might have impact in the future when looking back at history.

Winter season is a great example. Winter starts on Dec. 21 but 10 days later we are celebrating a new year. A year ago we were scooping lots of snow from multiple storms in January. Will we tell our grandchildren it was the winter of 2023, the year the season started, or 2024, when the snow fell?

When I worked in the 2000s in western Kansas, there was about 18 inches of snow that fell during one storm days after Christmas but before New Year’s Eve. The storm is still long remembered as it also cancelled a large, extensive New Year’s Eve celebration intended for the town where I was living. “Do you remember that snow right after Christmas....” might start some reminiscing conversations.

School and other sports are the same. We have always written school years including both years, for example, the 2024-2025 school year. But we always use the the year the school year ended for the graduates. “Congratulations, class of 2025.”

So what are we going to call things that overlap years?

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Our bitter cold this week reminded me of how I warmed myself up during my earlier years. It’s too bad today’s newer houses don’t have radiator heat systems. You know, those were the metal structures standing a few feet high in the corner of the room. Hot water would flow through the pipes and give off heat.

Nothing like being in elementary school and throwing your school clothes on them in the morning while you went to breakfast. Afterward, when changing out of pajamas, the warm clothes was a morale boost to those cold days. I’ve seen in some high-end stores sell bath-towel warmers.

When I was older and we were living in another house, I would put my feet near the heater vent on the floor then cover my legs, or most of my body with a blanket. The heat would turn on and the blanket would trap the heat. This is a bit tricky since room furniture may be in the way. There was a heater vent in our living room that was easy access, until mom and dad moved the furniture.

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Just minutes into his second term as president, Donald Trump is planning using executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. I soaked my toes in the gulf in January 2019 and didn’t think about what it was named. I was just glad it was there as a great vacation spot, especially for Midwest people in the winter.

I do wonder now about the name of the state of New Mexico. Will that remain the same or will Trump want the Mexico part of the name gone too? What’s the difference between the gulf and the state? (New Mexico didn’t favor Trump in November.)

We are in for another potentially bizarre four years of American politics.