Dec 05 2005
Men are from AM, Women are from PM.
That is supposed to be a play on “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” but it’s not a very good one, is it? I mean, when one writes such a play on words, it really had ought to be obvious to the reader and in this case it is not, so here I sit explaining it.
At first I was going to put “Men are from PM and Women are from AM” but I figured PM was just one letter away from PMS so I gave it to us chicks. By the way, did you know why it was named PMS? Evidently “mad cow disease” was already taken. hahaha I kill me.
Okay, now moving on to the AM and PM story after that pathetically long and meandering introduction.
Tonight, as my husband and I sat in the family room, our 9 year old daughter asked “What does AM and PM mean?”
In my infinite wisdom, I answered, simply and succinctly (which is sooo not my style), “Well, Sarah, AM stands for after midnight and it’s the time of day that starts after midnight and ends at noon. PM is pefore midnight. I know pefore isn’t a real word but it’s a good way to remember it. It goes from noon until midnight. Does that help?” (OK, so it wasn’t ALL that succinct after all).
My husband says “Sheesh, Lin, she asked a question of us - perhaps we should take the opportunity to educate her.”
Then he breaks into this diatribe about monks and latin words and prayer time, yadda yadda, geek history lesson, yadda, latin knowledge enough for 12 men, blah blah, I am supremely educated and know everything attitude… “and THAT’S why we call it AM and PM. Did that help?”
She didn’t say it, but I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was considering the immense value of the after and pefore mnemonic, and that she was a little scared of Latin-boy.
Far be it from me to challenge him mere weeks pefore Christmas. I’d probably end up with a new vacuum under the tree as my gift (and what a waste that would be - I never even use the OLD one, ya know?).
