amateur of the day: anti-clockwise (and counter-clockwise)

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Sat Aug 27 14:45:51 UTC 2011


At 8/26/2011 11:12 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>  In another generation, nobody will know what counter- (or
> anti-)clockwise refers to.

And medical instruction and skill will suffer.  During my cataract
operation, I could hear the surgeon describing positions to the
intern assisting him as "at three o'clock", etc.  When the operation
was over, I asked him what he would do when there were no more analog
clock faces.  He didn't reply directly, but said that he has
preserved one in his basement so that he can instruct his
children.  (Maybe he intends them to become the only eye surgeons who
can do cataract removal well.)

Joel

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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