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

[Joel S. Berson]

At 8/27/2011 04:28 PM, Spanbock/Svoboda-Spanbock wrote:
>My kids - in their teens - don't get it when they ask what time it is
>and I answer "quarter to..."  Their preference for the digital clock
>is so strong that they have no visual reference for it.

Have they never been inside -- or for that matter at the south, 42nd
Street, outside of -- Grand Central Terminal?  Or boarded a train at
King's Cross station?  Or seen "North by Northwest"?  They must have
seen "Superman".  Or passed the corner of Massachusetts and Park
Avenues in Arlington Heights, Massachusetts, where the four-faced
analog clock is once again showing the correct time?
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/9595676

Joel


>On the other hand, they were preparing to go somewhere with a friend
>their age, and the friend said, "Hey, we better get going. It's almost
>fifty." Took me a moment to figure out that she meant 00:50, which the
>adults in the family would have called "ten of..." or "ten to..."

I would have taken longer than a moment.

Joel

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