From the Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behaviour:

Five-ish for tea means 5:20pm, while five-ish for drinks means between 5:30 and 6:15.

Six-ish for drinks means 6:45, but six-ish for "and early supper" means one should arrive at seven and will be fed at 7:30.

Seven-ish for "a drink" means 7:10, but seven-ish for dinner means one should arrive at 7:30 and will be fed at 9:00.

Eight-ish for dinner means one should arrive at 8:15 and will be fed at 9:00.

There is no nine-ish.

Imagine if they scheduled shuttle launches this way...could be confusing

So much for Miss Manners' ability to tell time...

What moron feeds her this tripe?

When I have guests for dinner at five, they usually arrive around FIVE. We laugh, drink, make merry, and start in on the appetizers around 5:01. Dinner's usually ready around 5:45, and after that it's time for discussion, cards, Monopoly, and whatever else floats their boat.

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol.

"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort." - Herm Albright

I'm like you. 5:00 means 5:00. I guess, according to Miss Manners, we're socially inept.

I think it's the "-ish" that she's counting. I know that I once saw a program at an SCA event that said court would be at "4-ish"; everyone showed up at six, and that's when it started. But that was SCA time, which is an anomaly in timekeeping that would keep the History Monks on their toes.

I do, however, issue invitations (verbal, I'm afraid, or by e-mail, either of which would make Miss Manners cringe) for "evening" or "5-ish"; this generally means that I prefer you to show up around five but I'm perfectly aware that you may have details in your life that prevent you from getting there on time, or that others will; dinner will be served when it's bloody well done.

But I don't like Miss Manners anyway; she thinks Christmas lists and bridal registration are rude, because it's telling people want you want. (How else are they supposed to know?) Since my Amazon wish list is some two hundred items long, believe me, it'll still be a surprise. (Especially if you get me the Connections series, at $150 a season.) As for bridal registration, how else do you ensure that you don't end up with six toasters?

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Whenever I say "x-ish", I mean "x +/- 15 minutes". When I say "around x"I mean "x +/- 30 minutes". Of course, this is an indication of when I'll be ready, and I place no solid guidelines on when people should show up.

I guess I'm just informal to the point of having no manners.

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"The plan does not involve mayonaise."
"... I knew there was a catch."

You can't take the sky from me.

I don't know anyone who schedules that way, but on the other hand we just had a James Webb Space Telescope project picnic that allegedly started at 3. I arrived at 3:45, and the burgers were still being churned out at 4:30.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

That's because, at this rate, 9-ish would mean breakfast.

Actually, that is exactly how the space shuttle is scheduled. Last I heard, it was scheduled for June-ish.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009
All moderation in purple

Oh geez, good ole SCA time. About the only thing schedules were good for was to find out which day something happened. Since most events are:

arrive on Friday
fight, court, and banquet on Saturday
leave on Sunday

Even that didn't add much help. And then on longer events (Border Raids, Gulf Wars, etc.) even the day tended to slip. "What?!? The ravine battle is today??? I brought tourny weapons! My poles are three zip codes over in the BFE camping area!! The battle's going to over by the time I get back!!"

I remember the paniced march my merc company did one year because the Marshalls decided to start early! And I don't mean on time either. We were throwing on armor midstride and taking shortcuts through people's encampments. (Trying to slither into knee-length chainmail and jog took talent beyond what I possessed. Thankfully we had a lot of non-combatants in the group too that came along as carriers and helper.) Ah those were the days before blown out knees and backs (thanks to the chainmail).

Ish???

FinnISH is when yer done.

SwedISH is when yer blonde.

PolISH is what ya do to yer shoes.

NineISH be nails. ( Sorry, that's Nine Inch, not ish)

5 o'clock is 5 o'clock.

BTW, who is Miss Manners, or am I missing something . . . nudge, nudge, know what I mean, a nods as good as a wink to a blind horse . . .

Oh, she's been around ages. (It'd be rude to say how long.) Frankly, I think it's a bit rude to proclaim yourself the ultimate authority on etiquette, but what do I know?

As to SCA time--I set when I take my meds to six o'clock--that's when ren faires and cons' dealers' rooms close to the public. Three weekends a year, I've got a cannon as my meds alarm. (Why? Because I don't carry a watch, so any time in the middle of the day is "somewhere between 10 AM and six PM.")

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Miss Manners was a journalist for the Washington Post for many years and now writes an advice column focusing on etiquette.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

I always go by "If you're not 15 minutes early for an appointment, you're late"...

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"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." — Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

441!!!! :)

You must sit around in waiting rooms a lot.

People certainly can show up fifteen minutes early for my parties, but the earlier you show up, the more likely you are to be roped into helping with setup somehow. (Another thing of which I'm sure Miss Manners heartily disapproves!)

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

In my book, showing up early for a party constitutes a declaration that you intend to help, and it'll be bad manners not to use that offer.

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It would be hard to imagine an uglier building that hadn't won a major architectural award.
Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

OK, I'll be fashionably late to your next social.

Given the relative locations, I'm pretty sure you won't be showing up at all to his next social! (You're more likely to show up to mine, on account of no ocean in the way, but you'll want to be fashionably late to that, too.)

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Actually I'll be in Ireland/Scotland in a few days, so I'll be a lot closer than I am now.

I think I actually have this book, but I thought it was intended as a sort of mild sattire, if not, then ettiqute has some pretty odd situations covered.

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Nope. She's serious.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"