Bah, I honestly can't stand the american date format.
Did you know the american format is really backwards? It offers no advantages.
I mean, it's not little endian nor big endian. The most stable information is not at the back or the front.
Also, two years ago, "7/7/7" people got all exciteed, you are all so 2000 years to late for that!
Same with 3 days ago. Or "pi" day.
Ok, now for some sane date formats.
The best is one found in Asia for the most part (most known in Japan): yyyy/mm/dd the best advantage is the easy sorting you can do, just alphabetical. The twentied of August in the year 2009 will always be after first of March in the year 1111.
This format is big endian, and therefore represents the most important information at the front.
Then there is the European format, of dd/mm/yyyy, which is little endian by putting the least significant information at the front.
Numbers, when written in the range 0-9, are (usually) in big endian format, meaning that part that is most important is at the front. I mean, on a scale of millions, what does a single digit mean at a million places after the decimal?
And lastly, there is the lowly and, quite frankly, IMO, useless, american date format of mm/dd/yyyy. Which is has no advantage at all, except it's more like the "verbal" counterpart, in the saying "March the eleventh". Which in it's own right is in big endian format. But why did they have to then tack on the year at the end? And even the "verbal" counterpart they used to say: "in the year of our lord, some number, on May the twenty-fifth, this and that happend".
Ok, that's enough ranting and somewhat usefull facts on dateformats and endian-ness.
Also, don't forget, the first story of Gulliver's Travels where he meets the Lilliput and Blefuscu, who are at war with each other at which side of the egg they need to break first, in other words, which endian, the Lilliput want the little endian side to break, while the Blefuscu want the big endian side to break. In fact, if I remember correctly, Swift is the originator of the word "endian" in it's modern use.
