Frazz by Jef Mallett for September 20, 2014

Is this a running joke?

If they were boxing, the punchline would be better.

It actually used to be that way – a Mid-summer Night’s Dream was June 21. But the earth takes about six weeks to change temperature, so mid-warmest is about August 2. This is what gave rise to Groundhog Day (Feb 2) indicating six more weeks of winter, March 21.

I worked at a radio station where a co-worker had the midnight AM-PM thing backward…he thought 12:00 midnight was still PM, and noon was AM. I explained it this way: just add a half hour. For instance, 12:30 midnight, is that AM or PM? It’s AM (like 1 AM, 2 AM that follow) – so, 12:00 midnight is AM. Same thing with 12:00 noon is PM.(That wasnt’t the only thing he had backward, but I won’t digress).

That would be a long run for me.

Why is Frazz dressed like Green Lantern?

Neither noon nor midnight are AM or PM. But more confusing is with modern nomenclature, the date of midnight is ambiguous.

I have seen M or MM described as Meridian or Mid-Meridian. But my computer doesn’t know either. I don’t trust a digital clock to agree with me about noon or midnight, whether it is AM or PM or today or tomorrow.

Something else to consider while running:September is the 9th month, but the prefix Sept means 7 — October (10th / 8), November (11th / 9), and December (12th / 10) follow suit. So why is this? I do know the answer, but just want to pose the pondering. Everyone have a great weekend.

Comments really need a Like button…

I agree with the people who say that 12 o’clock should not be considered AM or PM…How can the line be what it divides? But if it IS called one or the other, Midnight is PM…AM doesn’t start until AFTER Midnight, Noon is still morning until it’s AFTER noon….Until AFTER the clock hits 12. Noon is the last second of morning, and midnight is the last second of the day….Just as the Twentieth Century did not end, nor the Twenty first century begin, when the calender said 2000. It ended on the first second of the first day of 2001..

At the risk of being a target for someone, I must say that all of these “confusing” types of nomenclature that have been mentioned thus far make perfect sense to me, and I find it interesting and a bit head-scratching myself that so many people here are so confused by these things…They are all pretty simple concepts if they are presented in a way each individual can understand them, in my opinion….

Techincally noon and midnight CANNOT be either AM or PM… since AM means Ante (or before) Meridian and PM means Prior (or after) Meridian – Noon and Midnight ARE the meridians. Calling 12 Noon 12 PM and Midnight 12 AM is WRONG and just because our modern educational system is too busy funneling all the money to administrators instead of the classrooms and forcing teachers to implement Mission and Vision plans instead of actually TEACHING doesn’t make it correct. And the fact that lots of ignorant people use it wrong doesn’t make it right either.

My coworker I spoke of was ex-Navy, so he could have been correct from his military experience.Many excellent points made here. We sure do get our money’s worth from this comic strip!

Technically, there is no 2400 hours in military time, the day runs from 00:00.00 thru 23:59.59. 2400 is used just because it’s easier for the average person to understand than “zero hours” which, in military terms, means something else entirely.

Also technically, noon & midnight are neither (as many have speculated) A.M. or P.M., but again, they are assigned values simply for convenience sake. Midnight is considered A.M. because midnight is the beginning of the new day (according to the Royal Greenwich Observatory, who ought to know about such things). In stark contrast to how the majority of people actually use the term.

The other bit of confusion that nearly everybody succumbs to is that “morning” does NOT start after midnight! “Morning” arrives at sunrise, and has nothing to do with the clock.

But thinks of MID-SUMMER. On what is now the FIRST DAY OF SUMMER?? The Solstice