Andy, Of course the European way of writing dates is more logical than the US way. Doesn't mean I gotta like it. And doesn't mean the US way isn't a fine and sensible approach to dates.
Cav, The rules regarding people who make quotation marks in the air? They are sent forthwith to the Victor Borge School of Punctuation. Upon graduation they will not only use hand signals but sounds for all punctuation.
This detour of our discussion reminds me of something (when am I not reminded of something?). I was asked by a friend to be a judge in a writing contest for her junior high school students. Many of the kids in her class were barely literate and knew little or nothing about punctuation. One kid was making the supreme effort to use commas and periods and a few other punctuation marks. His composition, written on lined notebook paper, exhibited his determination. The punctuation marks were larger than the capital letters. He won. Sometimes you really do get an A for effort.
Good story, Roberta. As long as we're digressing, it reminds me of the young Puerto Rican student I had a couple of years ago who was quite literate and articulate, except that he couldn't punctuate a sentence to save his soul. For an assignment, he once handed in a very well-written autobiographical essay which was, essentially, one sentence, running for two hand-written pages and held together solely by conjunctions.
I graded it A-minus. It was fine writing except for that one little fact.
Roberta wrote: Doesn't mean I gotta like it. And doesn't mean the US way isn't a fine and sensible approach to dates.
Now you've made me curious: In deciding whether something is "a fine and sensible approach to dates", which criteria do you use -- other than whether you're used to them? As for myself, my favorite would be year/month/day. This way, you start with the big picture and move to the details. Unfortunately, no country I know of has adapted it yet. Maybe in a few decades, I can move to some space station whose management listens to reason.
Thomas, I agree whole-heartedly. Year/month/day makes perfect sense. I could live with that.
I like the month/day approach because you get the context first. Then the specifics.
