So a week or two ago, I go into McDonald’s and find that they’re changing their hours of business for the summer. Good idea, that. Unfortunately, they seem to be sharply curtailed:

You’ll notice that, Monday through Thursday, they appear to be open six and a half hours per day (only six hours on Sunday), and that they close right at lunchtime. Must be one of the effects of that economic slowdown I’ve heard about; fewer people eating out.

Now, a little more puzzling, and you figure out that the person who put this together just didn’t understand the difference between a.m. and p.m.. This is common enough, as are people who refer to midnight on a 24-hour clock as “24:00”. Idiots.

That isn’t the only problem with this, though. Pay attention to the parenthetical remark at the bottom, which makes it clear that during a good portion of their extended ‘open’ hours, their doors will actually be locked. From the point of view of the community, this is horrible; these extended hours won’t result in there actually being any activity later at night; it’ll just mean that you can get a Big Mac to take home and wolf down as a midnight snack.

Anyway, this flyer caused so much confusion that they made a new one, and it might actually be worse.

This one makes it clear that it’s the drive thru hours that are changing (and it avoids the whole 12 a.m./p.m. issue by saying “midnight”), but it’s still unnecessarily complicated and confusing. Taken literally, this says that on Thursday nights, they close at 11:00 p.m., clean up for an hour, and then reopen from midnight to 1:00 a.m. Friday.

It’d be much clearer and more concise to say, “During the summer, the drive-thru will be open until 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.” While this whole “1 a.m.”/”night” thing might be technically inaccurate, it would more clearly express what I think they’re trying to say.