That made me laugh a little.
Must re-read the book, its been a few years.
I realize you are discussing a different issue, but you remind me of one of my biggest “infuriating” minor things: weather reporting. I rarely look at anything related to the weather other than to see if snow or hurricanes are coming. The reason is simple: they inject hyperbole and sensationalize everything. They are constantly warning of the “Storm of the Century” and telling about how the sky is falling and … well a stopped clock is correct twice a day.
Well, to be fair, most weather IS about the sky falling. Or bits of the sky falling, anyway.
kW (kilowatts) instead of kWh (kilowatt-hours). This very common error is one I am exposed to more than most people, because I am an engineer in the energy industry and also am involved in conversations about electric vehicles.
It mostly bothers me when it’s a colleague, who should know better. But even for non-engineers, where the confusion is understandable, the answer to their question would often be obvious if they were just using the right units.
I grew up with 12 a.m. referring to midnight and 12 p.m. to noon, but people confuse this (or were taught differently) enough that I go with the noon/midnight convention and don’t bother with the a.m. or p.m. like you. Looks like both my Associated Press stylebook and Chicago Manual of Style eschew listing “noon” as anything other than “noon” ( no “12” in front; no “a.m./p.m.”) AP also says for midnight to avoid using the term if there’s any confusion and instead referring to 11:59 p.m. or 12:01 a.m. I’m guessing the reasoning for that one is because it may be unclear which day the midnight belongs to. Chicago Manual of Style likes you to include the dates on both sides of your midnight, so, for the one that just passed, it would be written “midnight, November 3-4”. Whereas with 24 hour time, it’s simpler: 0:00 midnight starts the day. 24:00 midnight ends the day.
Yeah, I can see why notionally ‘12 noon/midnight’ might seem redundant, but ‘noon’ on its own seems a bit vague, and ‘midnight’ more so - if someone says a thing happened at midnight, I would not always assume they meant it happened at the exact stroke of midnight; if they say ‘12 midnight’, I know we’re talking about a time rather than sometime in a period (‘midnight’ imprecise as a term like ‘the small hours’)
A two-fer: Requesting a tip and unnecessary quotes.
mmm
Could be worse, J.P. could have written:
quote unquote your
quote unquote generosity
quote unquote Thank-you
Right. 12 makes it clear for both 12 Noon and 12 Midnight.
Exactly. I want to know if Wilson Pickett is going to hold me at exactly 12 midnight, or merely at some point during a notionally hour-long period, around about midnight.
And if you say something’s happening at noon I want to know you mean 12 Noon, not just around lunchtime.
Especially if it’s a gunfight
Part of me knows the writer of this sign just believes quotes are an alternative to underlining, but part of me can’t help reading the whole thing as sounding sarcastic
Celery. I don’t need an armload of celery, it goes bad so fast. And basil, I needjust a sprig and I have to buy a whole plant for $5
Oh, that spoken ‘quote-unquote-[quoted text]’ thing - prefacing the quoted text instead of quote-[quoted text]-unquote, annoys me a little bit.
Does it? Does your celery come as a whole bunch with the base still on, and is it bagged? Mine is and it lasts a few weeks in the fridge. The place I shop started selling it unbagged for a while, presumably to reduce plastic packaging - just a little paper ribbon around the bunch; this lasted less than a week in the fridge before it went all limp.
I don’t know what they think it even means. If it is an actual quote, prefacing with ‘quote’ is sufficient, no need to add the unquote at the end unless the ending is ambiguous. But quote-unquote sounds to me the same as writing ""words instead of “words”. Similarly the use of ‘proverbial’ in front of something meant literally.
This irritates me too. I live in MN - it snows here. In the last few years, an inch of snow is now worthy of an alert, warnings, danger, danger. I open my weather app as soon as I get up in the morning so I know how to dress to walk the dogs. Almost every time snow is predicted, the daily page background is RED. When I first see it I think - blizzard! Nope, just a 40% chance of snow with accumulations of 2". 
I’ve heard wrapping it up tight in aluminum foil will preserve it. Now I just look for the pre-chopped little plastic cartons in the produce department. Meant for cooking soup, or stew.
That’s at high noon.