Category: TIme

Our Glass

10/2/2020

I got a new phone recently, and it has a much better camera than my last phone. This camera has a "macro" feature, so when we visited North Carolina's Outer Banks recently, I took a close up picture of the sand at Jockey's Ridge State Park.

Those are my shoe prints below on the left, and the close up of the sand on the right.

Cool beans, right?

And speaking of sand through the hour glass...

Emily Dickinson said, "forever is composed of nows"; however, those "nows" give the illusion of permanence, when in fact -- as Dickinson points out in "We do not know the time we lose" -- the substance of each and every "now" is merely sand. Quick sand. Those slippery "nows" turn swiftly into "thens" as they take their "fundamental pace among the certainties." Forever is also composed of thens.

By Emily Dickinson:

We do not know the time we lose –
The awful moment is
And takes its fundamental place
Among the certainties –

A firm appearance still inflates
The card – the chance – the friend –
The spectre of solidities
Whose substances are sand –

Well, now. Doesn't that sound depressing. Perhaps we should turn to something a little more cheerful?

Dickinson also wrote this:

This World is not Conclusion.
A Species stands beyond –
Invisible, as Music –
But positive, as Sound –

And if that's not buoyant enough, here are videos of kittens: click HERE.

On a final, off-beat note, the last two lines of Dickinson's poem above -- "The spectre of solidities / Whose substances are sand" -- made me think of some lyrics from "Things are seldom what they seem," a song in Gilbert & Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore":

Buttercup:
Things are seldom what they seem,
Skim milk masquerades as cream;
Highlows pass as patent leathers;
Jackdaws strut in peacock's feathers.

Captain:
Very true,
So they do.

As the familiar hashtag says -- #justsaying.

Oh, by the way, the song ends as follows:

Both:
Tho' a mystic tone I/you borrow,
He will/I shall learn the truth with sorrow;
Here today and gone tomorrow.

Captain:
Yes, I know.

Buttercup:
That is so!

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Truth Be Told

12/7/2017

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From our 19th century historian, Eudora Dickinson:

People say that history repeats itself. That is most certainly the case with Time’s Person of the Year for 2017, the silence breakers. Back in the late 1800s, Time selected another group of wormen as the Women of the Year, the Truth Tellers.

Similar to the women speaking out in 2017, this group came forward to protest against serial predation. These women and a host of other accusers spoke out about the inappropriate, abusive and in some cases illegal behavior they faced from politicians such as Drittereich Drümpf (a distant relative of Donald Trump’s) and Lester “Les” Moore (a distant relative of Roy Moore’s).

Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request) wrote a now-classic poem based on the stories of these women, “He touched me, and I lived to tell” (below on the left). His poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem “He touched me, so I live to know” (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

He touched me, and I lived to tell
That such a day, not permitted
He groped upon my breast –
It was a power play on me
Then silenced, as the awful sea
Puts minor streams to rest.

And now, I’m different from before,
As if I’d gained superior nerve –
And gushed a true Account –
My spirit, too, that wandered so –
My Gloomy face – transfigured now –
From what I did Recount –

Into this Light, now I have come,
With others, all in Unison,
Who tell their anguished tales –
Not Addled, battle in reply
Lift such a Political lie
Of these injurious Males.

By Emily Dickinson:

He touched me, so I live to know
That such a day, permitted so,
I groped upon his breast –
It was a boundless place to me
And silenced, as the awful sea
Puts minor streams to rest.

And now, I'm different from before,
As if I breathed superior air –
Or brushed a Royal Gown –
My feet, too, that had wandered so –
My Gypsy face – transfigured now –
To tenderer Renown –

Into this Port, if I might come,
Rebecca, to Jerusalem,
Would not so ravished turn –
Nor Persian, baffled at her shrine
Lift such a Crucifixial sign
To her imperial Sun.

Below left: Drittereich Drümpf, a distant relative of Donald Trump. Like Trump, Drümpf was a known sexual predator.

Below right: Lester "Les" Moore, a relative of Roy Moore's (pictured with his wife Orpha). Like Roy Moore, Les Moore preyed on young girls.

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Spring Forward, Fall Apart?

11/5/2017

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From our current affairs editor, Lemuel Stuart III:

Spring forward, fall back? Isn't that the saying to help us with the re-setting of clocks at the start and end of Daylight Saving Time?

This time around -- as we set our clocks back one hour -- I'm visiting my mother's house, and we had about a dozen clocks to reset. Of course our digital devices changed times automatically, but we had to figure out how to reset the time on all of the other clocks around the house.

We had digital clocks in the bedrooms and guest rooms. We had a face clock in the kitchen. We had the clock on the microwave and the oven. We had clocks on a radio in the laundry room. We had to reset my mother's analog wrist watch.

None of the clocks could be reset in the same way - -and, of course, none of them could be reset easily. No, we had to figure out which buttons, switches, dials and knobs had to be pressed, pulled, flipped, clicked and/or turned in the precise (and enigmatic) combination.

After all the madness, I think we finally have all of the clocks reset. Except the microwave oven. It just keeps blinking "8:11." Maybe I'll just put some tape over that one.

Oh, wait a minute -- we also have to reset the clock in her car. Crap.

All of this silliness over one hour of time reminded me of Emmett Lee Dickinson's now-classic poem about Daylight Saving Time, "The Clock blinks one that just struck two" (below on the left). If I re-read the poem, perhaps it will inspire me to Google search how to change the clock on an old model of a Sharp Carousel microwave oven. Dickinson's poem did inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "The Clock strikes one that just struck two" (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

The Clock blinks one that just struck two –
Some schism in the Time –
A Camouflage of Silliness
To wreck the Paradigm –

By Emily Dickinson:

The Clock strikes one that just struck two –
Some schism in the Sum –
A Vagabond for Genesis
Has wrecked the Pendulum –

How do all of our digital devices automatically reset at the start and end of Daylight Saving Time? It all happens flawlessly thanks to the workers at the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Time (NIST).

Below: Workers at NIST reset the U.S. civilian time and frequency standard to end Daylight Saving Time at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 5, 2017.

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The Father of Invention

8/11/2016

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Time magazine published "The Top Ten Inventions of All Time" today, and we are tickled pink that an invention by Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request) topped the list.

The magazine polled over 1000 inventors, scientists, and entrepreneurs, and they charged the evaluators to assess the innovations that have done the most to shape the nature of modern life.

What made the list? We've published the top ten list below from #10 to #1:

10. Post-its

9. Bowed shower curtain rods

8. "Forever" postage stamps

7. Heated car seats

6. Free drink refills at fast food restaurants

5. Splash guards at urinals in public restrooms

4. Margaritas (on the rocks, with salt)

3. Toilet paper

2. Nachos (invented by Emily Dickinson)

1. Novelty coffee mugs (invented by Emmett Lee Dickinson)

For information on other inventions by Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request), click HERE.

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I Wouldn't Lose Any Sleep Over This

3/8/2015

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America's greatest poet, Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request) was also an inventor and a scientist, and it was he who suggested and developed the concept of Daylight Savings Time. He proposed this new model of time near the turn of the twentieth century to aid famers in their fields as they tended to their crops.

However, the Daylight Savings plan that congress ultimately adopted was NOT exactly as Dickinson had proposed it.

Dickinson loved corn -- hence his interest in and concern for farmers in the field -- but he also loved sleep. Therefore, Dickinson's plan was not to "fall back" one hour in October and then "spring forward" in March, because with this plan we all lose an hour of sleep in the spring. No, Dickinson's plan preserved our sleep, AND it gave us extra day for the weekend. Here's what he proposed:

* "Fall back" one hour in October.
* Then "fall back" twenty-three hours at midnight on a Saturday in early March to give us an extra Saturday, and thereby giving us a three-day weekend.

Wouldn't this give us an extra day in the year? No, because Dickinson proposed giving up August 31st , "who needs that date anyway?" he wrote.

Of course, Congress did not adopt Dickinson's plan as proposed because Speaker of the House J. Warren Keifer's mother's birthday fell on August 31st!

Dickinson wrote a short poem about the adopted plan ("fall back" one hour in October and "spring forward" one hour in March) called "Oh, honey of an hour." His poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen a poem by the same name. Both poems are below:

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

Oh, honey of an hour,
I never knew thy power,
Till springtime’s leap
Now I’m drowsy and dour,
And more frequently sour,
Since I lost sleep.

By Emily Dickinson:

Oh, honey of an hour,
I never knew thy power,
Prohibit me
Till my minutest dower,
My unfrequented flower,
Deserving be.

Dickinson was distraught by congress' bungling of his plan as was much of the general public! He had never intended for anyone to lose any sleep over this shift in hours. Also, Dickinson pioneered the research on Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), so he knew of potential issues with the shifting of hours and sunlight.

As a result of the adopted DST plan, Dickinson invented the Daylight Savings Adaptation Lamp (pictured above). This device allows individuals to anticipate and acclimate to the shift in sunlight hours so that they do not become "drowsy and dour, and more frequently sour."

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One-Mississippi. Time's up.

7/12/2013

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You have thirty seconds to name every song title you can think of that includes the word "Time." Are you ready? Go!

One-Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi...have you come up with any yet?

"Summertime" by George Gershwin., of course. And "Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce. Nine-Mississippi, ten Mississippi. Any more? Whant about "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper, and "Time Is on My Side" by the Rolling Stones.

Fourteen Mississippi, fifteen Mississippi. C'mon now, there are more. Lots more. What's the song from Casablanca? Oh yeah -- "As Time Goes By." Twenty-one Mississippi -- and there are more with the word "summertime" -- like "In the Summertime" -- that song by Mongo Jerry -- and "Summertime Blues." Twenty-nine Mississippi, thirty Mississippi. Times up!

Of course, there are many more songs with "time" in the title. You'll think of more.

And speaking (or singing?) of "time," I recently posted my "Top Ten References to Time by Emily Dickinson" on Tumblr, and I included links to 10 through 7 on my list in one PLOG post on this site, and I included links from 6 though 3 in another PLOG post. However, I never inlcuded links to my top two references to "time" by Emily Dickinson here -- so here they are:

Number 2: Click HERE.

Number 1: Click HERE.

But just like the fact that there are many other songs with the word "time" in their titles, there are many other poems of Dickinson's which reference time. Do you have favorites that I didn't mention in my Top Ten list? If so, let me know -- when you have the time.

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Time's Up. Or Is It Down? (At Least It's All Around?)

7/1/2013

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I keep PLOGging on about “Time”:

I always thought it was Steven Wright who said, “Time keeps everything from happening all at once.” Turns out it was French philosopher Henri Bergson – at least according to Physics Hypertextbook at http://physics.info/  (and if it’s on the Internet, it must be true – just like all of the information herein at http://thedickinson.net is true about Emmett Lee Dickinson, Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request).

Time is certainly a funny thing. Paradoxical really.  For example, if time stretches infinitely into the future, and there is
no end, then doesn’t it also stretch infinitely into the past – and there was no beginning?

Emily Dickinson wrote…

Forever  – is composed of Nows –
‘Tis not a different time –
Except for Infiniteness –
And Latitude of Home –

Of course, “Forever” is also composed of “Thens.”

That’s a quirky thing about time: at the very instant when “today” becomes “tomorrow,” “today” also becomes
“yesterday.” In truth, the very instant every “now” becomes the future, the very same “now”becomes the past.

Time is quite stable that way. And unstable?

In a letter to her cousin Louise Norcross, Emily Dickinson wrote, “for what is each instant but a gun, harmless because ‘unloaded,’ but that touched ‘goes off’?”

Talk about volatility! Every instant of “now” eliminates the present time to the past as it reveals (and consumes) the future.

Dickinson understood this fickle nature of time. In a letter to a friend in 1845, she wrote somewhat facetiously, “Have you altered any since I have seen you? Isn’t it a funny question for one friend to ask another? I haven’t altered any….” Instead, Dickinson would have agreed most certainly with Lewis Carroll who, in a line from Alice in Wonderland, said, “I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.”

I can’t go back to yesterday, so today I just keep PLOGGIng along. PLOGging right along about “Time”: I have been posting my “Top Ten References to Time by Emily Dickinson.”  In my most recent post (dated 06/30/2013), I included links to my numbers 10, through 7. Here are links to numbers 6 through 3 on my list:

Number 6: Click HERE.

Number 5: Click HERE.

Number 4: Click HERE.

Number 3: Click HERE.

Check back later for my Two 2 references to Time by Emily Dickinson -- I'll post them when I find the time.

Talk about paradoxes, Julian Barbour, a British physicist with research interests in quantum gravity and the history of science, stated, “We shall come to see that time does not exist.” George Musser concurred -- sort of? He wrote an article for “Scientific American” entitled, “The Paradox of Time: Why It Can’t Stop, but Must.” A preview of his article is HERE.

I’ll stop for now. Time’s up.

(Or is it down?)

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Our Glass

Truth Be Told

Spring Forward, Fall Apart?

The Father of Invention

I Wouldn't Lose Any Sleep Over This

One-Mississippi. Time's up.

Time's Up. Or Is It Down? (At Least It's All Around?)

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