Reply #9: ANSWER to the noon/midnight question:

[unblock]

the correct answer is NEITHER!

am means ante meridiem (before midday) and pm means post meridiem (after midday).

noon being exactly midday is neither before nor after; midnight is equally before one and after the other. in either case, neither am nor pm is technically correct.

to avoid ambiguity, the proper time for the exact midday is "12 noon" and "12 midnight" for the exact crossover from one day to the next.


having said that, the rest of the minute between 12 noon and 12:01 pm clearly falls on the "pm" side of things, so it is convenient to toss 12 noon in with the rest of that minute, resulting in the widespread (but technically incorrect) convention of referring to 12 noon as "pm" and 12 midnight as "am".