>Why do most of the other languages speak only the calendar in such smaller-larger (or in the MDY case, larger-smaller-largest) order of units is beyond me. Ditto for putting the house number before the street.
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>What time is it now? Fourty eight, ten.

The German equivalent of quarter-to-H or 10-past-H is quite alive in rural areas. A programmer from Bavaria used always time-to-H for times 45min or greater after the H minutes and H:min otherwise. If you consider time a vector you are traveling on like a train, makes some kinda sense as to ease of perception...