Time was, if an Anglo-American sought a safe unflustering
topic to discuss in the drawing room, topic of choice was the weather. But now, in the midst of global climate change
and its strenuous deniers, so bland and traditional a greeting as “Hot enough
for you?” is liable to provoke a fistfight.
Alright -- Into the lumber-room of forbidden subjects it
goes, lying anyhow among the jumble of race, class, religion, economics, sex,
and all the other no-nos.
So, what remains as a sufficiently anodyne conversation opener?
How about, “What time is it?” ? -- Well, so far that sally leads to no bloodshed on the
Yankee side of the Atlantic: But
do not try it in Spain. That
nation is now heatedly debating bringing its time-zone into line with
geographical reality. Sounds
straightforward enough. But -- How did it ever get out of sync in the
first place? Turns out it was
nakedly political; you can hear
the strange tale here:
http://www.medi1.com/player/player.php?i=5631230
In summary: The
dictator Franco, back in his heyday, changed his country’s highterto realistic
and conformable timezone to be one
hour later -- so as to share the timezone of the fascist dictatorships, Germany
and Italy, to the east! And
to this day, no-one has undone it.
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