A subway train headed for Lake Avenue station with the wrong clock. (Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG, photo by David Crane)
Some people, or at least gullible columnists, can be fooled by the promises and promises of supposedly contrite government agencies.
A few months ago in this space I discovered that the four clocks on the four sides of the clock tower at the Lake Avenue subway station and the 210 freeway in Pasadena were all simply wrong, each with its own When I lashed out at the simple fact that it was wrong in its method, Metro acted as if it were shocked to discover such a discrepancy in the space-time continuum allowed by its watch. , vowed to rectify the situation immediately.
The oath was not kept.
I put a note about bad timing at the bottom of last week's column, but this week I was so frustrated that I put it back at the top.
Because one out of every four clocks is set in the cruelest way. So being about 10 or 12 minutes late means that when you're actually running late for an appointment, you look up at the clock and it feels as if you're actually on time. time.
You probably aren't.
On Monday, I was on the highway, worried that I would be late for my dental appointment in Sierra Madre. That eastbound traffic isn't surprising, but it's still surprising to me. Rush hour traffic at 2:20 p.m. If I believed the subway clock, I would think everything was fine, even though it wasn't.
Mr. Metro, what's the point of keeping the clock running if you can't keep it running on time? Could this be a visa issue for the Swiss watchmaker hired to wind the delicate Rolex mainspring inside the tower? Is it broken beyond repair? If so, can you tell me the bad news? Are the parts no longer made? If so, why go ahead with the boring digitization process and install a corny, ugly, but inexpensively accurate LED clock? Was it because twice a year he had to deal with changes from daylight saving time to standard time on a bridge too far for maintenance staff?
Does offering these free fares on days like Earth Day drastically cut cash flow and doom this finicky effort to simply keep the clock moving on time to be in vain, and admitting that? Is it better?
If that's the case, Metro-san, why don't you just throw it all away? Let's tear down our tyrannical towers and stop pretending that the clock runs on time. Anyway, it's all just window-dressing, an effort to show off the fact that putting a train station in the middle of a highway was a terrible idea 20 years ago, even if it was economically viable in the first place. did.
Therefore, if this is unavoidable, please let us know now. Or wait, I have a cheap solution. Simply remove the analog clock and its unwieldy hands and simply project a digital version of the analog time onto the tower from four vantage points. A few hundred dollars worth of technology and you're done.
As I wrote during the first bout of picketing, the government clock is a kind of promise. It is accurate and the institutions that support its upkeep are competent.
When these things are demonstrably false, it says just the opposite. So let's watch the clock get fixed. Otherwise, let's cut down that tower.
Wednesday is random
I'm sure the stories about this litigious society are endless and all more or less the same, but it was still infuriating to hear about another absurd warning to be taken recently. A few weeks ago, on the opening day of the 88th Pasadena City Championship, I was standing at the starters desk in the clubhouse at Brookside Golf Course and there was a sign posted: “No Caddies, No Spectators.” I saw you there. There have never been big crowds at amateur tournaments, and not every player has had a buddy to carry their bag and read their putts. But some of the family liked to go watch the games, especially when their own players were in contention on the final day and there was a looper lifting the club. I asked why the new rules. Apparently his caddy fell off the back of a golf cart last year, but we don't know why he was riding in the back of the cart. But suddenly you have to become a player walking courses all over the city. In a better world, in other words, if this were Scotland, you wouldn't just be able to caddy and walk with the players. You can always walk your dog here and have a picnic on the course on Sundays. Fore!
Contact the publishing editor at lwilson@scng.com.
