Things I Know I Know

In a bizarre mass-malfunction, Venezuela’s clocks are ticking too slowly due to a power shortage weakening the electric current nationwide. By the end of each day, the sluggish time pieces still have another 150 seconds to tick before they catch up to midnight.

I once lived in the southeast corner of Indiana where some towns are on Central time and some towns are on Eastern time (it was actually more complicated that that because the majority of Indiana was on Eastern Standard time all year round which meant for all practical purposes different time zones at different times of the year). The locals called it 'slow time' and 'fast time' and (proof that I was probably not cut out to ever be a local) I could never figure out which was which. Whenever there were meetings you had to figure out if the town the meeting was in was on fast time or slow time. But it was handy if you'd worked late and wanted to go get lunch--you could head for the town on 'slow time' (or was that 'fast time?)

I particularly applaud Venezualans for taking their particular version of slow time in stride:

But in a nation that rarely starts on schedule, Venezuelans have taken their time troubles in their stride. An air traffic controller casually told Reuters that his office corrected its clocks every few days or months, without incident so far.

“Yes, it’s been happening here. But we correct the clocks every three months and there’s no problem,” he said.