Deadlines and newsrooms: the two shall never be divorced. And what do we rely upon for our timeliness? Clocks, of course!
Once upon a time, the ticking seconds hands of clocks building-wide were controlled by a demanding machine nestled deep in our complex. This concert of time lost and gained ensured that no second of productivity was left uncounted.
But like all mechanical things, this eventually broke. The smooth second hands were replaced with individual timepieces and halting movements. This army of atomic synchronized clocks should have assured a similar accuracy. Except that it didn’t.
I’ve tried correcting them, but the devices have been castrated, no longer adjustable by manual means. One corner of the room may read “get home, fool” while another screams “back to work! five minutes of hellish email remain!”
The end of Daylight Saving Time puts us squarely in the future, autonomous in error by a full, uncorrectable hour (give or take five minutes.)
UPDATE: The clocks, as a collective being, have chosen to behave. We are back to real time (as inaccurate as that usually is.)
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