Look at your calendar. No, not the one on your phone; the one that hangs on the wall in the kitchen. The days are arranged with Sunday on the far left and Saturday at the far right, right? Exactly what you expect from every calendar you've ever seen, whether you bought it at Barnes&Noble or got it free from your insurance agent.
Last year (2025) we went to France, spent 4 days in Paris, and another week cruising the Seine down to Normandy and back. Since we were in Paris, we (naturally) went to the Musee d'Orsay. We always go to the M'O when we're in Paris. Doesn't everybody?
In the gift shop at M'O, Norene found a wall calendar (for 2026) featuring her favorite artist in all of recorded history, Claude Monet. Of course, she bought it to take home as a souvenir of the trip... and because she relies religiously on the written appointments on her wall-calendar-de-an immediately began transcribing known appointments for the following year onto her new 2026 calendar.
As she is posting appointments, she's muttering to herself "I was sure that was for a Tuesday, but the note clearly says 'January 20 at 10am, and that's Monday." But when she shows up for the appointment at 10 sharp on Monday, the receptionist is as confused as Norene was. "Mrs. Clarke, your appointment is tomorrow. Tomorrow? Yes, ma'am, tomorrow, Tuesday the 20th.
How could she have made such a glaring mistake? Back home, we look carefully at the calendar. Across the top, the days of the week are listed: Lundi, Mardi, Mercredi, Jeudi, Vendredi, Samedi, Dimanche, and underneath, in English, in faded-out type: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Whoops! If you don't realize that this calendar starts on Monday and ends on Sunday, an appointment for Tuesday the 20th looks very much like it's for Monday the 20th (even though Monday is the 19th...)
For consistent intellectual growth, one should try to learn something new every day. In this case, we learned that not all calendars start on Sunday.
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