RE: Correct time
Ed, have you ever read this story? I think it's pretty cool.
I want to tell you a story about a clockmaker. Once upon a time there was a small town. The town consisted of many houses, a few shops, and a large factory at the end of the road. Most of the people in the town worked in the factory. In the center of town was a clock shop. The clock maker was very proud of his shop, he had big clocks, little clocks, cuckoo clocks, alarm clocks, you name it, he had it. But his pride and joy was his large grandfather's clock which stood proudly outside at the front of his store.
One morning, he noticed a young man stop in front of his store and look at the huge grandfather clock and then proceed on down the road. He really didn't think much about it. The next morning the young man was back, and the next and the next. The clockmaker began to take an interest in the young man and watched him. The young man would stand in front of the grandfather clock and look at it for a few seconds and then look down at the ground and then up at the clock and then down at the ground, and then leave. It was curious, but he did not seem to be bothering anything, so the clockmaker resumed his work. However, the young man kept coming, for days, a week, a month, every day he came to the clock shop. Finally, this had gone on for a year and the old clockmaker just could not stand it any longer. What was the young man doing, stopping out there every morning, looking up at the clock, down at the ground, the old clockmaker had to know. So the next morning, just like clockwork, here comes the young man. The clockmaker went out front and greeted him, "Hello, I am the clockmaker."
"I know," said the young man, "I see you here every morning."
"Yes," said the clockmaker, "that is what I want to talk to you about. I don't mean to be nosey, but what in the world do you do out here every morning?"
"Well," said the young man, "Obviously you do not know who I am. I work at the factory at the end of the road. I have a very important job there. In fact, I guess you could say that I have about the most important job in the factory. I am the one who blows the whistle. I blow the whistle when it is time to come to work and when it is time to leave. I blow the whistle when it is time for lunch and when it is time to return to work. It is very important that I blow the whistle at exactly the right time or the company or my fellow workers could lose money, so I have to have the exact time. That is why I come by here every morning. I figure who would know the exact time better than the clockmaker. So, I come by here every morning to set my watch by your big clock."
The clockmaker scratched his head and began to smile. He looked the young man in the eye and said, "Well, if that don't beat all. You say you blow your whistle by the time on that clock. And every day, I set that clock by the time you blow your whistle."
