> 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.