morning short takes

[cellio]

Never try to visit a car wash on the first nice day in March. I'm glad I wasn't blocked in by the time I could read the sign a few cars up that said "45-minute wait from this point". (Well, the sign wasn't punctuated correctly, but I'm used to hyphen neglect.) I'm willing to live with filth for a little longer. :-)

I saw an odd traffic-light failure this morning. At one intersection (where visibility isn't the greatest to begin with), the red lights were out -- all of the ones I could see. But not the greens. They should kill the light entirely until they fix that; at least that way everyone gets a clue that something might be wrong, and maybe most drivers even know to treat the intersection as an all-way stop in that case.

Someone on the street asked me what time it was and I said "20 after 9". If it had been five minutes earlier it would have been natural to say "quarter after", but had I said "third after" he would have looked at me cross-eyed. I wonder what led to "quarter" and "half" being acceptable but not other simple divisions.

(I am reminded of a book -- I forget which -- that I read as a child, where the child protaganist thought that "quarter past" meant 25 minutes past, because there are 25 cents in a quarter-dollar.)

Comments

[hopeness.livejournal.com]

I remember getting in trouble for being late coming home for dinner by making that exact assumption around age 8 or 9.

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Recently, a child asked me for the time and I said "quarter to one." He looked puzzled, til I clarified "12:45."

Children of the digital age. I wonder when he'll learn to use a timepiece with hands.

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

I do say "a third past" or "a third to". But yeah, people do look at me cross-eyed. I figure I haven't much to lose, 'cause they do that a lot anyhow.

But I don't say "a fifth past" because in addition to making them look at me funny, it'd make too many people have to stop and think, and that would make it less of a shurtcut than just saying "twelve after".

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

We have icky weather ahead, so you may end up feeling happy about delaying your car wash.

[cellio]

I wonder when he'll learn to use a timepiece with hands.

"When" implies that it will eventually happen. :-(

[cellio]

I think it's reasonable to require round numbers (those ending in "0" or "5") for this exercise. People get scared of math otherwise, it seems.

[magid.livejournal.com]

No one says "a sixth after 3" instead of "10 past 3", though, even though it's round numbers...

[profane-stencil.livejournal.com]

I wish I could get used to hyphen neglect. It makes me sad to see that useful little mark being forgotten.

[not-your-real.livejournal.com]

Wasn't this Ramona Quimby?

[cellio]

Aha! Thank you; that's the one.

[cellio]

Round numbers are necessary, not sufficient. :-)

[cellio]

Sounds like. Though granted, any car wash between October and April is likely to have short-lived effects.

[hopeness.livejournal.com]

Possibly. I remember my specific incident, and it was during my pre-Ramona days, for sure.

[aliza250.livejournal.com]

Binary divisions are easier for the brain to process.

[cellio]

I think some of the hyphens have been kidnapped and transformed into apostrophes to be abused in plurals like "CD's". Someone needs to mount a rescue mission.

[cellio]

That's a good point. The only counter-example that comes to mind is a fifth of whiskey, and it's easy to argue that alcohol changes the way the brain processes. :-)

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

And these days, a fifth of whiskey is really three-quarters of a liter.