I occasionally respond to letters to the editor in my local paper with letters of my own. I like to add a touch of sarcasm and sometime even take digs at folks unrelated to the topic at hand. My friend and coworker Robin Harbron suggested that I post my past letters as well as new ones as I write them. So I will be doing that periodically. I'll probably throw one up here this weekend.
Speaking of this weekend. "This weekend" on a Monday usually refers to the weekend that just ended while "this weekend" on a Friday usually refers to the upcoming weekend. When (do you feel) this crossover takes place? Wednesday at noon feels like the fair time for this to happen. However I think it happens around 2:34am Wednesday morning. By the time you get to work Wednesday morning "this weekend" is the upcoming weekend. Any thoughts?
6 comments:
Hmmm, I think the tense always makes this weekend unambiguous. "This weekend I will..." or "this weekend I did...". I can't think of an ambiguous example, though I admit I'm not willing to think very hard at the moment.
Atta boy.
But on a Friday it would sound "odd" to say "This weekend I did..".. you would likely say "Last weekend I did..."
Atta boy. Keep on thinking.
I think I tend to be excessively precise (surprise surprise) and say "This past weekend..." and "This coming weekend...."
Pfft, it's easy. It all hinges on what weekend you're talking about. So if you're talking about something that happened this weekend, then that's the one.
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