Talk:Jam tomorrow

not quite right

This page isn't quite right, at least not for UK English speakers. The words "jam tomorrow" are most commonly used in the phrase "bread today or jam tomorrow", meaning a choice between:

(a) consumption now, or

(b) deferral of consumption, leading to a greater level of consumption later (by, say, investing).

In that usage, there is no implication that option (b) is unrealistic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.143.73.127 (talk) 08:06, 25 October 2013 (UTC)

Origin of the quote

I've just been listening to 'Alice through the Looking Glass', which this reminded me of our Latin master's explanation, when I was in school, that this quote was a joke related to the rules for the Latin word 'iam' (pronounced 'jam'). http://www.textkit.com/greek-latin-forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10382 gives the explanation, which ought to be included in the article:

So recently I read Through the Looking Glass (yes, this is Latin related!), and in the book, the White Queen says: "The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday -- but never jam to-day." According to Annotated Alice: ...Carroll plays on the Latin word iam (i and j are interchangeable in classical Latin), which means "now." The word iam is used in the past and future tenses, but in the present tense the word for "now" is nunc. I received more letters about this than about any other oversight, mostly from Latin teachers. They tell me that the Queen's remark is often used in class as a mnemonic for recalling the proper usage of the word.

--Brian Josephson (talk) 17:38, 30 November 2013 (UTC)

Based on the link above, this is not an actual rule in Latin grammar, so this section of the article shouldn't be there. BCorr|Брайен 01:56, 31 August 2016 (UTC)

Thanks to Prof. Josephson for the explanation. I have updated the article to make this clearer. Andrew🐉(talk) 19:21, 18 September 2025 (UTC)