On Dec 10, 1:45*am, dsi1 > wrote:

> I was probably a little retarded as a child so my dad had to set me down
> holding an alarm clock to teach me how to read one. It's pretty involved
> it you ask me. You have to be able to count in sets of five and divide
> by 12 and 2 and 4. You have to learn idioms like half past and a quarter
> to. You have to learn that 2/5ths between 9 and 10 is 47 minutes. I
> never found the entire idea of reading a clock face to be a simple task.
> I can certainly believe that for a lot of kids, reading a clock face
> will be a daunting task.


At first I found it hard to believe, but when I thought of the sun
dial that preceded the clock it made me change my mind. Then I
thought of expressions inspired by the clock that are used outside of
clock watching. For example, the movie "12 O'Clock High", about a
fighter plan squadron during ww2. And when you're driving down the
road, or a passenger, someone might ask you to check something out,
and when you go, "Where?", they say, "10 O'Clock", or "6 O'Clock", or
whatever the position is they want you to look at. That will not be
lost on those growing up on digital. I like digital too. Not
complaining about any of these changes, only observing them - while
reserving the right to complain if I goddamn feel like it of course.

TJ