How surprised (and relieved and pleased) I was the other day to notice a very small (but significant in the eyes of a grammar geek!) change in the WordPress date stamp format.
Did you notice it?
No more st, nd, rd, or th after the day! These superfluous letters added to dates (as in November 29th, 2007) make me cringe. According to The Chicago Manual of Style (Section 9.35), “when specific dates are expressed, cardinal numbers are used, although these may be pronounced as ordinals.” Meaning, “November 29, 2007” is correctly pronounced “November twenty-ninth, two-thousand-seven”—no need to add the th, because it’s already in there. Adding these letters makes the pronunciation sound like a stuttering of sorts: “November 29th, 2007” is verbalized “November twenty-ninth-th, two-thousand-seven,” which I am sure most would agree is awkward and pointless.
Yet WordPress used these extensions in their date stamps. Those extra, erroneous letters have taunted me on every post! I searched for a way to change it on my settings, but couldn’t figure it out. So that’s one of the first things I posted about (rather, complained about).
How tickled I was to see those little letters now removed from the date stamp. I’m not sure when it happened or who made the correction, but kudos to you at WordPress! I looked back at my old posts to see if I could pinpoint when this happened, but the change seems to be retroactive. All my old posts are smiling back at me, now without the extra baggage in the date stamp.
A small joy, I know, but it does give me a warm, fuzzy glow of happiness to know the taunting has come to an end.
