tags: euphemisms, female condition, miss interpreted
stranger on the street: have you got the time?
This is not a question I was asked in the US. This question has been put to me on several occasions when walking from bus stops to appointments in the UK.
The question always makes me think twice before replying. Am I being asked for the current time or does the asker suspect that I may be a professional street walker?
This scribble was published on Thursday, October 30th, 2008. You can follow any banter on this scribble with the RSS 2.0 feed. You can share your inspired musings after typing the anti spam word near the bottom of the page. But no Pinging because its too naughty.
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October 30th, 2008
No, Wendums, they think you are a professional time teller. This is a new job, introduced recently by a government department, in order to get the unemployment figures down. Recruitment only happens immediately after the clocks go back (ie last weekend) because rigorous research has proved that this is when the lumpen proletariat get most confused about the time. Is it an hour earlier, or later? Has the Town Hall clock been changed, or not? Why is it so dark? What time does John Lewis close on a Wednesday? Is my car park ticket about to run out? Did I leave my watch in the bathroom, or by the kitchen sink? It is nice work if you can get it, and the general public obviously think you are cut out for the task. But why? Are you standing around outside Jackson Freres ostentatiously looking at your oversized watch? Possibly exclaiming “Good heavens! Is that the time?!” If so, you only have yourself to blame. (You’re not wheeling a huge clock around with you, are you, Wendy? Just wondered.)
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October 30th, 2008
And in the new commercial environment, you have to provide an answer à la Disney.
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October 30th, 2008
. . . this is the time I get most confused . . . Is X Factor on yet?
Sx
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October 30th, 2008
‘Who knows where the time goes?’
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October 30th, 2008
Mrs P. & Kevin, indeed, I am qualified, I can read analogue and digital clocks in both American and English with Micky Mouse gloves or not.
Scarlet & Stephen, I suspect that the time goes foward and the X factor is always on somewhere…
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October 31st, 2008
“the X factor is always on somewhere…”
My God. I’ve died and gone to Hell.
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October 31st, 2008
Sorry, Wendy. I just had to comment becauseI didn’t want to waste the anti-spam word “bollocks”
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October 31st, 2008
One could argue that the time goes backwards since the time that
once was ahead of us is now behind us. Or perhaps it stays still;
don’t you sometimes think the platform is moving past the train?
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October 31st, 2008
Aging ‘Fairport’ follower knows where the time goes.
Spam work ‘Kate Bush’ Who knows where she is?
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October 31st, 2008
I thought time was 3 dimensional and somewhat warped (hence start trek warp speed)
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November 3rd, 2008
Nicky – I thought time was the fourth dimension?
It’s all too timey-wimey for my poor little head.
Stephen – perhaps Kate is busy recording a duet with Sandy?
Though probably not.
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