Tempus Fuggit

Is it just me, or does anyone else have a problem with time? Not the there's-not-enough-hours-in-the-day kind of time - I mean, that's a given - but the whole telling time thing.

Ok, brothers, back down! Yes, of course I can tell the time! I'm talking about the whole AM/PM thing, and the irreverent twelve o' clock on either side. Now do you get me?

My problem is with adding the suffix after 12. Here I am happily wading my way through 9AM, 10AM, 11AM, and then suddenly, my alarm clock/ iCal diary rejects my 12AM, and I resign myself  (disgruntingly) to a stupid 12PM.

If I say to you "Twelve in the morning" versus "Twelve at night", you picture noon versus midnight, right? And I'm thinking AM versus PM. So it makes sense to me to talk about the middle of the day as 12AM, and the middle of the night as 12PM.

Look, I did Latin (a bit), and I know that AM is ante mane and PM is post mane and ante is before and post is after and mane is noon, but I don't see any little Latin time-keepers floating around, so can't we just go with the whole see the 1 to 12 AM routine through before getting going on the PM's? It just makes sense, doesn't it?

And that, dear reader, is what comes from scoffing a whole bag of Diddle Daddle (Popping since 1993) Caramel Gourmet Popcorn on your own.