24 Hour Clock

What's this 24 hour clock I speak of? I'm referring to what we commonly call "military time". Hospitals use it - keeps them from messing up patient dosages and treatments. Other than that? We don't call 5:00 happy hour 17:00, do we? Well, I don't. In fact in our family, those 5 o'clock cocktails are called "Fivesies". 

Here's the wording direct from Wikipedia (you don't have to read it, just skip down):

The 24-hour clock is a convention of time keeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours, indicated by the hours passed since midnight, from 0 to 23. This system is the most commonly used time notation in the world today.^[1] The 12-hour clock is however still dominant in a handful of countries,^[1] particularly in Australia, Canada (except Quebec), India, the Philippines, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States. In many countries, both time systems are used, although 12-hour time is mostly used in speech for ease of use, and 24 hour time is preferred in writing. The 24-hour notation is also popularly referred to as military time or astronomical time in the United States and Canada^[2]. In some parts of the world, it is called railway time or continental time. It is also the international standard notation of time (ISO 8601).^[3] In the practice of medicine, the 24-hour clock is generally used in documentation of care as it prevents any ambiguity as to when events occurred in a patient's medical history.

Let's just highlight, shall we?

The 24 Clock - "MOST COMMONLY USED TIME NOTATION IN THE WORLD TODAY".

Not here. Not in our neck of the woods. It says we're an exception here in the US. It also says Canada is an exception - but I found that to be not true, at least where I was. *See my post Monday about booking travel on a Canadian coach company*. Let's see... it also says it's an exception in the United Kingdom. Also not true, at least where we have relatives in England - they always stumble from saying time in 24 hour clock speak, like they are used to, to saying it in 12 hour clock speak, like we are used to for our benefit. Exception in the Philippines and Pakistan? India? Couldn't tell ya the whys or hows.

Then we have the metric system. I won't make you read the Wikipedia explanation. Ever wonder why your car has km/hr on the speedometer?  That's because we are the only dorks using miles/hour. Ever read a recipe that calls for a gram of something? Now how are you going to measure that out? Metrics has been the International System of Units since the 60's. You want to know who DOESN'T use the metric system? Ready? Burma, Liberia, aaaand... the USA. Ever wonder why you can't figure out how many liters of soda is a gallon? That's because they aren't the same measurement system! Why in the heck are we using two measurement systems in this country? Why are we one of THREE countries NOT using the metric system? Can you even find Burma or Liberia on a map?!

Okay, I admit it, this is a weird little pet peeve of mine. And it's not nearly as cut and dried as I make it sound, but still. For the most part, it's because my brain does not like to convert things back and forth. When I run a 5K, 10K, 50K (truth: I've never run a 50K but I'm trying to make a point), I hate having to say, "Now how many miles is that?" Yes, races are in K's, but we train in miles, we time in miles/hour. Dumb.

Sigh. I know it's my own little silly issue (trust me, I have many), but I sometimes can't resist jumping on my soapbox for a little exercise in free speech. LOL.

***Ally
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