# You can call me a backward Limey if you want but
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [May 13, 2002, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787 "2002-05-13T11:44:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Vic\_Ferrari](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vic_Ferrari)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2002, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/21 "2002-05-13T14:09:27Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by cadboy \*
> \*\*I have a problem with presumtion that the American way is always right. \*\*
Believe me, some of us are getting pretty sick of always _being_ right. It’s a tremendous burden.
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2002, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/22 "2002-05-13T15:01:57Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by cadboy \*
> **I cannot help but feel that the European system, which is a natural progression from second-minute-hour-day etc is the more logical.**
Wait a moment…
There’s a system that _ **begins** _ with seconds?
So right now, it’s 33:08:16 13/05/2002?
Really?
trouble is that by the time I finished typing the time that way, the seconds had changed, so it’s now 47:08:16 13/05/2002.
really.
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### Author:  [@cadboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cadboy)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2002, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/23 "2002-05-13T15:13:28Z")
Head in hands realises how flawed his argument is!
Withdraws quietly
Hoping nobody had noticed
However it works if you begin with years and end in seconds
y-m-d-h-min-sec.
Perhaps we should all change!
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### Author:  [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2002, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/24 "2002-05-13T15:23:59Z")
I think that’s what some of us were arguing for
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### Author:  [@The\_Mermaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mermaid)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2002, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/25 "2002-05-13T18:04:07Z")
It’s ok even backwards Limeys need love too. I won’t go as far to say as we are all human cause there are a few people I haven’t made my mind up about yet. 😃
Welcome to the Board cadby! Have a cookie and help yourself to the punch.
(now you’ve got me thinking about that Cadburry’s Eggs commercial where the bunny clucks like a chicken…)
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### Author:  [@vebr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vebr)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2002, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/26 "2002-05-13T19:24:07Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by kambuckta \*
> \*\*(god, I am soooo sick of saying ‘down HERE’ when we are the superior beings!!)
>
> Fucking Americanization!
>
> Why don’t you pompous Yanks get it into your brains that you are NOT the centre of the universe!
>
> \*\*
Um. We never made you say that. We don’t care what you call yourselves. I’m pretty sure y’all started it. (Why would we?)
In fact, since polarity changes often anyway, I think Austalia should be considered “up” because it at least has summer at perihelion, when the earth is close to the sun, while we northerers have summer when the earth is at it’s farthest.
So there.
Vebr
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### Author:  [@vebr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vebr)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2002, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/27 "2002-05-13T20:10:52Z")
Cadboy,
Typing as I am, in Houston, in the oilpatch, I would say that your company is really odd. If I were among those Houstonians in your company I would be really worried by their behavior. I doubt if date format is an issue for any of them. What they want is the same vacation schedule you people get. Now _that_ would make them happy, I’m sure!
Vebr
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2002, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/28 "2002-05-13T22:12:23Z")
For the record **cadboy** , I always use yyyymmdd when I have to put the date into a filename or a log file or something; it’s the least ambiguous.
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### Author:  [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2002, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/29 "2002-05-13T23:28:48Z")
Let’s just all change to a notation in seconds since the invention of the pendulum clock, back in the seventeenth century. You would get used to it, over time, and it would do away with all that troublesome crap like leap year, days of the week, and silly things like time zones. You get up when it gets light out, who cares what time it is.
Tris
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### Author:  [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2002, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/30 "2002-05-13T23:41:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by cadboy \*
> \*\*Now to the nub of the issue, Dates, how did America come up with the Arse about face date form of Month-Day-Year when the rest of the world uses Day-Month-Year…I cannot help but feel that the European system,…is the more logical.
>
> I am prepared to listen to arguments that support the benefits of the American system\*\*
How did we come up with it? Well I don’t know for a fact, but I’d assume it’s because that’s the way we say it in normal conversation…“When were you born? March 6, 1957” and person writes it down in that order.
Not necessarily better…just familiar. Most of us don’t mind writing it your way if asked to do it that way…
It also just seems more logical to me. Let’s continue the birthday analogy. If someone asks when my birthday is, often the month is enough to answer the question…specific enough. If they need more information, they ask what day. Only if they really, really need to know does anyone proceed to the year, and then they’d better be in some official capacity!
Now if I answered the question “the 6th”, then thay HAVE to seek more information. Going from the least specific to the more specific.
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### Author:  [@Caught\_Work](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caught_Work)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2002, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/31 "2002-05-14T08:10:30Z")
We \* are \* in the pit aren’t we.
What are you people doing arguing points with rationality?
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### Author:  [@Ziactrice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ziactrice)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2002, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/32 "2002-05-14T13:34:18Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by kambuckta \*
> \*\*Hey Cadboy I totally agree. Our system is dd/mm/year too down here (god, I am soooo sick of saying ‘down HERE’ when we are the superior beings!!)
>
> Fucking Americanization!
>
> Why don’t you pompous Yanks get it into your brains that you are NOT the centre of the universe!
>
> {skulks sheepishly and runs like mad} \*\*
Oh, about the same time you foreign souls finally pick up on the fact that 70-80% of us do not fit inside the term “Yank”. Also, after you update your spelling efforts to “center” and “color” and so forth. 😛
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### Author:  [@ShadowWarrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowWarrior)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2002, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/33 "2002-05-14T14:58:30Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by kittenblue \*
> \*\*
>
> How did we come up with it? Well I don’t know for a fact, but I’d assume it’s because that’s the way we say it in normal conversation…“When were you born? March 6, 1957” and person writes it down in that order.
> \*\*
Except a lot of people (myself included) would say 6th of March, 1957… well, I wouldn’t because that’s not my birthday, but you get the idea…
also, dd/mm/yy is nicely translatable as “the 6th of the 3rd, 57” for example…
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### Author:  [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2002, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/34 "2002-05-14T15:11:10Z")
This is _exactly_ the point I raised yesterday about how Merkins say the date differently, i.e. May 13th vs. 13th May.
Some of you need to read the thread.
pan
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2002, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/35 "2002-05-14T16:44:24Z")
I remember when I visited England once, I was at the airport filling out some piece of paper, and I wrote the date out American-style. The guy I handed it to made a smart remark about Americans not knowing how many months were in a year. Maybe he was just trying to be funny, I dunno.
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### Author:  [@Caught\_Work](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caught_Work)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2002, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/36 "2002-05-14T23:14:04Z")
Well, at the very last you’re using Gregorian dates rather than some of the systems I work in they’re in Julian dates for goodness sake.
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### Author:  [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)
#### Post date: [May 14, 2002, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/37 "2002-05-14T23:28:06Z")
? Who still uses Julian dates?!
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2002, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/38 "2002-05-15T00:31:00Z")
The Russian Orthodox Church does, doesn’t it?
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### Author:  [@Caught\_Work](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caught_Work)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2002, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/39 "2002-05-15T04:39:47Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by matt\_mcl \*
> \*\*? Who still uses Julian dates?! \*\*
The sad fuckers who think saving a byte on the screen is gonna be good for their pockets.
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### Author:  [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2002, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-call-me-a-backward-limey-if-you-want-but/108787/40 "2002-05-15T04:51:35Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Ziactrice \*
> \*\*
>
> Oh, about the same time you foreign souls finally pick up on the fact that 70-80% of us do not fit inside the term “Yank”. Also, after you update your spelling efforts to “center” and “color” and so forth. 😛 \*\*
If it quacks like a Yank…😃
And FYI I am mounting a personal campaign to restore decent English which includes…
centre and colour
to the spelling gazette (sp?)
And to-MAH-to is the correct pronunciation for that funny red fruit, not to-MAY-to.
Geez I’m being a fucking pedant. Look at what a simple conversation with a Merkin can do to you!
Will someone hit me over the head please?😛
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