equinox...

[emmacrew]

So, my mom had an emergency preparedness neighborhood meeting where, among other things, they discussed changing your smoke detector batteries, and how the suggestion used to be to do it at the time change, but that was getting lopsided now. So she said she planned to do hers at the equinoxes, and got a roomful of blank stares

Comments

[pers]

I don't consider myself any of those things and I know what an equinox is! hhe

[faecat]

is the time change THAT lopsided now?

[rmd]

no. unless your smoke detector is in the kitchen and doubling as a fried food detector, the batteries are probably good for close to two years, at least. and, in fact, most smoke detectors will start to beep plaintively when the battery is low.

[emmacrew]

It's more like 5-7 than 6-6, but probably not so lopsided as to be a problem for batteries. It's this weekend, egad!

[frog_lady]

I will grant that I'm both a science geek and a vocabulary nut, but I would think they'd have to be people who'd never looked at calendars.

[greyaenigma]

I think it'd be pretty easy to miss when the equinoxi happen. I never remember when they are, myself. (I can't even keep track of when the time changes are, and those require you to do something.

[emmacrew]

True enough, but at least you know what the word means...

[greyaenigma]

A rudimentary grasp of latin does help.

[dougo]

Not enough, apparently: it's equinoctes in Latin, not equinoxi.

[tchemgrrl]

I'll admit that if I don't have a second to remember word roots I mix up "equinox" and "solstice", but heavens, I still know what it MEANS, and can't think of anyone I know besides non-native speakers that wouldn't.

[boojum]

My ninth-grade science teacher insisted that "solstice" meant the longest day and "equinox" meant the shortest day. Marked me down for giving the right definitions, too. I didn't like her. (Unfortunately, I wasn't clueful enough to get the dictionary or any other reference; I was too hung up on The Truth to think much about the communication.)

[greyaenigma]

Oooooh, I hate those sorts of teachers.

(I have to stop and think about the difference between solstice and equinox myself.)

[emmacrew]

Nice. I suspect she might have backed down if proven wrong with the dictionary but held it against you in other ways.