Every American who has been in the military has perforce mastered and used the 24-hour clock. Adopt it for your report, explaining what it is in an attached text note for the first 15 days for which it is used.
The twelve-hour clock has nothing to recommend it. Anciently, there were not two but three suffixes, viz., o AM, ante meridiem, as in antebellum or antecedent, before noon, o M, meridies, noon, middle of the day, and o PM, post meridiem, as in postwar, afternoon. This scheme did parse, but dumbing down has destroyed it The latin case endings are now all but unknown; hoi polloi have somehow lost meridies and M entirely; and I now hear speculation about whether noon is AM or PM, about whether, that is, it is noon before noon or noon after noon. Dump it, and tough out the complaints you will hear. They will subside quickly, and you will be surprised to discover that you have many allies. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
