Friday, October 19, 2007

Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden Hours

If you go to the Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden website you will see this:

Our restaurant hours are:
Monday, Wednesday & Thursday 6:00pm - 11:00pm
Tuesday closed (BBQ in summer 6:00pm - 11::00pm)
Friday 6:00pm- 12:00pm
Saturday 12:00pm - 12:00pm
Sunday 12:00pm - 11:00pm

The question that I have is On Saturday are they not open at all, or open 24 hours? I suspect they mean they are open from noon until midnight.

People do not seem to realize that there is really no agreed upon definition of 12:00 A.M. and 12:00 P.M. Just to give you an example of the confusion surrounding this, dictionary.com says "If it is 12:00 a.m., then it is midnight. If it is 12:00 p.m., then it is noon." However, the U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual says just the opposite. Kind of makes your head hurt.

A.M. means before noon, from the Latin ante meridiem. P.M. means after noon, from the Latin post meridiem. Therefore you really can't have a 12:00 A.M., which would mean twelve o'clock before noon; that is nonsensical. And, of course, the same goes for 12:00 P.M.

Now I know that this has little to do with the main thrust of my blog, but given the number of bars that continue to use 12:00 A.M. and 12:00 P.M. when they advertise their hours and that this is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, I thought I would share.

Of course anyone who advertises they are open from 12:00 P.M. to 12:00 P.M. really needs a proof-reader.

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