this weekend

[Dennis R. Preston]

>You mean you can't say "I was in California this weekend"?

dInId


>To me, "this weekend" means the one now in progress, or, if today is a
>weekday, the one that is going to come soonest; never the one just past.
>I.e., "this weekend" is never more than five days away, and the
>direction is always forward. I've taken to saying "this coming weekend"
>or, for the following one, getting lengthy as in "the weekend after this
>coming weekend"; similarly "this past weekend".
>
>I hope nobody finds "this coming/past weekend" ambiguous!
>
>-- Mark A. Mandel