Re: This day

On 3/24/07, Eric Christopherson <rakko@...> wrote:
> >> On 3/23/07, Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> wrote:
> >>>  .........  But "top" and "bottom of the hour" are quite intuitive to me, relating as they
> >>> do to the minute hand's position at the top or bottom of the clock,
> >>> respectively.
>
> I had never heard of or thought of this interpretation until it came
> up on this list. To me, the bottom of an hour is the very end of it.
> I did some searching and found this: [ http://www.bartleby.com/
> 68/98/6098.html ], which says:
>
>         The top of the hour and the bottom of the hour are broadcasting and
> possibly advertising jargon for the beginning and end of an hour or
> half hour of broadcasting time; they also mean "on the hour" and "on
> or at the half hour."
>
> This doesn't really seem to clear anything up for me!
Try this instead:

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/bottom+of+the+hour

I don't know who might be the ones using it differently.  At least
throughout the US - on radio and television, broadcast, cable, and
satellite - "the bottom of the hour" means half past.  And that pretty
darn precisely.

--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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