"Is it morning or afternoon?"

At the radio station, we frequently receive calls from folks in various states of sobriety and clear-headedness who say something to the effect of, "I have just one question for you: is it morning or afternoon?" With the long periods of dark and light that we get up here, it makes sense that some people might be confused but it's still fun to tell family and friends about these folks and gently poke fun at them.

Then, this morning, after 30+ hours of travel through a half dozen airports across two days with minimal sleep, my Alaska Airlines jet touched down on a cold, dark, Nome December morning. I jerked awake and heard the flight attendant say, "Welcome to Nome. It's 9 o'clock" and I immediately thought, "Oh good. I can get off the plane, get my luggage, and it'll be time for bed." Then I jerked again, realized she meant "9 AM," and I still had a full day of work ahead of me.

I think I'll be a bit more vigilant in the future about adding the AM or PM to time announcements when I am on air.