[WikiEN-l] Do we really want to confuse every American who reads the Wikipedia?

[The Cunctator]

On 3/3/03 12:08 AM, "Sean Barrett" <sean at epoptic.com> wrote:

> The aliasing pipe was meant to humorously link the phrases "Sun Mar 2
> 19:44:31 PST 2003" and "this moment"; ie, the moment in which I was
> writing.  (What time zone are you in, that that time was half an hour in
> your future?)  Also, the phrase "it has no automatic article-selection
> mechanism" might be understood to mean that it has no it has no
> automatic article-selection mechanism, thus making it unable to "go off"
> any time soon.
> 
> I still don't understand what, exactly, is confusing about 2 March 2003.

As I tried to explain, confusing is not perhaps quite the right word.
Disconcerting and unnatural is better. To the American ear, "2 March 2003"
sounds like something Yoda would say.

As if you had written,

"Understand what, I still do not, exactly, about 2 March 2003 confusing is."

(And then you can add that little Yoda  "hmmm?" at the end and lift large
objects with your mind to complete the picture.)