I saw a headline in our paper recently that read “ARod to Retire
Next Friday”. Well, that article was printed on a Tuesday and ARod was retiring
3 days later on Friday. So he was retiring this
Friday not next Friday, right? How can people (even editors, apparently) go
through life and not know the difference between this week and next week? I
think everybody understands this month
and next month, and I think everyone
understands this year and next year. So, why the problem with this week and next week?
Well, I did some research and it turns out that there is no
right or wrong way to use these terms (“this” and “next”). Really? We find this
to be pretty weak here at Uncle Tommy ‘cause we always thought “this”
referenced this week and “next” referenced next week. C’mon. Can we standardize this, please? In
hindsight, it would have been better for the editor to leave the word “Next”
out of the headline entirely. ‘Cause now, those of you who were planning on
tuning in next Friday to see his retirement are going to miss it. Unless ARod
shows up next week ‘cause he thought he was retiring “next” Friday.
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