sid: (Metropolis clock)
sid ([personal profile] sid) wrote2011-04-28 12:26 am

A timely thought

As the days of analog timepieces fade into history, will the directions "Turn clockwise to tighten" soon lose all meaning?

Will the expression persist, complete with scholarly footnotes and diagrams?

What could possibly replace it?

Any youngsters out there who can give a current status report?

And, just for fun, what other words or phrases can you think of that belong to the past but live on in the present? (It's late, and all I can think of right now is "Hold your horses!")
onyxlynx: Winged Duesenberg hood ornament (1920)

Heh.

[personal profile] onyxlynx 2011-04-28 05:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Speaking of which, what will replace the ancient riposte to the verbose: "Were you vaccinated with a phonograph needle?"

(The sheer number of explanatory footnotes for any Stephen King novel will be epic!)

There was apparently a major push for analog because it was felt (presumably by the usual cabal of conservatives) that digital was just too exact. (I own a pocket watch now (analog with Roman numerals) for when I can't use the phone--and there's another--and got into the digital conversation. Also the clockwise and the Roman numeral conversation, because people apparently only see those in movie copyright notices. Ha.) Hmmm. Just realized that the phrase "My hat's off to you!" is ineffective when almost no one neither Hasidic nor Amish actually wears a hat anymore.
lilacsigil: 12 Apostles rocks, text "Rock On" (12 Apostles)

Re: Heh.

[personal profile] lilacsigil 2011-04-29 03:25 am (UTC)(link)
On clocks and watches, at least, it's a marketing thing. Apparently clocks with Roman numerals look more expensive than ones with Arabic numberals, and using the incorrect IIII instead of IV is more visually balanced.