But it doesn't make sense to say:

  24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

That just really doesn't make sense at all. I know that the numbers means, and are for, but if someone is saying every hour in the year, to say 24/7/365 is just nonsense.

Of course, this is a losing battle. People just don't care if what they say makes sense, they just say stuff and assume that people will understand. This is one of the things that makes language bizarre, miraculous, infuriating, and impossible to analyse. I note examples like this because they are caltrops on the road for NLP.

They are all relative timeframes by which a store my be closed; certain hours during the day, certain days during the week, and certain days during the year. Your inability to make sense of it doesn't affect the rest of us. It's like a creationist saying evolution doesn't make sense to them: at some point it is the result of a willful ignorance that you are bragging about. It doesn't make for very interesting trolling.

  > They are all relative timeframes by which
  > a store my be closed; certain hours during
  > the day, certain days during the week, and
  > certain days during the year.

Huh. That's a way of interpreting it I'd never seen. Thank you.

  > Your inability to make sense of it doesn't
  > affect the rest of us.

No, except that it may help people see that what they think is obvious isn't always obvious to others.

  > ... it is the result of a willful ignorance
  > that you are bragging about.

Well, that's obviously your interpretation, but if others see it that way then it explains the hitherto mysterious yoyoing of points on my comments.

  > It doesn't make for very interesting trolling.

I find it disappointing that you think I'd troll.

>what they say makes sense

I would argue that no single statement can make sense. Sense is made when multiple statements are combined.

It's really all just about appropriate cognitive load. Every statement must be processed and it's great to be as accurate as possible and as accurate as the consensus agrees to.

Anything higher quality than that falls under the category of "great writing," which only a handful of people cherish.

Hey, FWIW, you've completely convinced me to never use this phrase again.

So you read 24/7/365 as 7/24/365? That only makes sense to Americans, I guess.