Somewhere a Clock is Ticking

Instead of being lavished with gifts upon my arrival home from New York, I was introduced to my family's latest acquisition - a grandfather clock. My father adores the clock - it runs a few minutes fast and there is no known remedy, so he set the rest of the clocks in the house to sync up with it.

There is nothing subtle about a grandfather clock - it has the time and wants the world to know. Every 15 minutes it chimes 1/4 of a song and on the hour it not only plays the whole song but it will also gong a corresponding number of times.

Living with this clock has to be handled with care; important conversations have to be timed around the clock. And you must never make a phone call at 12:00.