Saturday, 24 March 2012

Saturday Snapshot (7) Kafka Time


Yes, the magic moment has arrived once again! Daylight Saving Time is on our doorstep. The coming night the whole continent changes to Summer Time, so that – no matter how easy the living may be – we’ll all be suffering from a minor bout of jet lag for the next two weeks. Don’t speculate on the stock market, I would say. Try not to operate heavy machinery, and forget about solving a Sudoku. You are not up to any of these tasks, for the brain functions as if it had received a soft whack with a sledgehammer.



But if you think you’re having a head-ache, imagine the plight of the poor technician who has to re-set the clocks on this stately building in Prague’s old Jewish quarter! How is he to know that Hebrew letters have a fixed number-value? And even if he knew, does a Hebrew clock run, well… clock-wise or counter-clockwise? And if a helpful passing Rabbi were to tell him ‘clock-wise, my friend’, does that then mean: to the left, or to the right?

Small surprise that these two clocks do not coincide in any conceivable manner!

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