real-time

[Jonathan Lighter]

Administration official Steve Rattner on CNN on the auto industry bailout:

"We were working against a fast-ticking clock and we had to decide this
thing in real time."

Perhaps "under the familiar Einsteinian temporal constraints," but more
likely "under compulsion of time; quickly."

Or it might just sound cool, like "going forward."

JL

On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 10:19 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: real-time
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 10/5/2010 08:27 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >2010 _New Yorker_ (Oct. 11) 35: "Bob Woodward, while writing five books
> >about wartime White House decision-making, has acted not only as an
> >investigative reporter but also as a real-time archivist.
> >
> >"Instantaneous"? Or just "acting before time itself comes to an end within
> >just the next few billion years"?
>
> Simultaneous to (at the same time as) his investigation?  A bit like
> the distinction in computing -- He's doing the archiving in the "real
> time" of his main job, as he comes across a document worth
> preserving, rather than "batching" what he finds for later execution
> (archiving).
>
> Joel
>
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