noon thirty

[David Bowie]

From:    Barnhart <ADS-L at HIGHLANDS.COM>

: One of the commentators on the Albany, N.Y., NPR affiliate just used
: noon-thirty (or noon:30) in reference to time.  I don't think I've ever
: heard this before.  Is it regional, social, or other?

I've been using noon:30, noon o'clock, noon:17, &c. (along with midnight:30,
midnight o'clock, midnight:17, and so on) since at least my mid-teens. (Born
and raised in Southern Maryland, b. 1970.) I could never remember whether
the noon hour matched up with PM and the midnight hour with AM or the other
way around, so it was an easy way to disambiguate things like 12:30 without
the danger of getting it radically wrong.

Or at least that's the explanation I give when people ask me about it. I
have no idea whether it's a completely ad hoc explanation or not,
particularly since I don't only use it in cases where there's a danger of
ambiguity.

David Bowie                                         http://pmpkn.net/lx
    Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
    house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
    chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.