Peter Rhodes on American dates, the afterlife and the perils of political downfall
And off to my gentlemen's club festive luncheon, after one final check of the booking details. Strangely, the date of the function is expressed on the booking form not only as 03/12/2024 but also repeated as “December 3”. This avoids any confusion between the UK and US dating systems.
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As you may have noticed, we Brits give the calendar date first, followed by the month. The Yanks do it the other way around. This explains why the September 11 Twin Towers attacks happened on 9/11 for Americans and 11/9 for Brits, although we have adopted their system for this one particular disaster.
But why does my booking form have to be understood by Americans in the first place? Probably because, while the venue is a pub a quarter-mile down the road in England, the table booking company is in San Diego, California. In the cyberworld, this makes perfect sense.
Funny old world. You have the same transport secretary for months on end and then another one comes along.
