Timeline for What's the opposite saying to "A broken clock is right twice a day"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
34 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 10 at 19:37 | answer | added | cebess | timeline score: 2 | |
| Sep 7 at 18:30 | comment | added | Jack Edward Tisdell | @JanusBahsJacquet re, how very Carrollian! š | |
| Sep 6 at 18:36 | answer | added | Mamta | timeline score: 1 | |
| Aug 30 at 19:08 | comment | added | mdfst13 | @JimMack While you are correct in your analysis of the statement (stopped makes more sense than broken), broken is far more common: trends.google.com/trends/ā¦ -- and for those who think it's less understandable now, note that the broken version is being used more over time. Of course, Google Trends only started in 2004 well after the introduction of the digital clock. | |
| Aug 30 at 9:18 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | @TinfoilHat Well, thereās no evidence to begin with that the expression is any less understood now than formerly (I would think everyone is still sufficiently exposed to analogue clocks that itās perfectly clear). But even so, my point was that if people donāt understand it because theyāre not exposed to analogue clocks, itās not because digital clocks donāt show times in AM/PM, which they obviously do for many people, but because a broken digital clock generally wonāt be stuck at the same time like an analogue clock, but will rather show no time at all, making the expression meaningless. | |
| Aug 30 at 2:46 | comment | added | Tinfoil Hat | @JanusBahsJacquet ā My comment was in response to the commenter who found it āinterestingā that the idiom is less understood now. If the time displayed is the āsameā twice a day, what accounts the difference in understanding? AM/PM | |
| Aug 29 at 21:24 | answer | added | Hagen von Eitzen | timeline score: 4 | |
| Aug 29 at 19:01 | comment | added | Michael Harvey | @LukeSawczak - the arithmetic is beyond me right now, but I don't think I would go so far as to say that such a clock would never be right. I feel a Python script coming on. | |
| Aug 29 at 18:59 | comment | added | Michael Harvey | I had a 'digital' clock (thus correctly described) that had numbers on the rims of two wheels, 0-23 for the hours, and 00 to 59 for the minutes. The numbers showed through square holes. It was driven by a synchronous AC motor and gears. If you unplugged it it stayed at the last time displayed. There were knobs to set the time if it had lost power or had been stored. ā | |
| Aug 29 at 17:34 | comment | added | Luke Sawczak | @JanusBahsJacquet or a power outage occurs, the digital clock resets to 0:00, and henceforth is never right again but always chasing the correct time until manually reset! | |
| Aug 29 at 17:19 | comment | added | John Gordon | even something which is typically correct can sometimes be wrong -- This is the default normal situation, so I wouldn't think you need a proverb or saying. | |
| Aug 29 at 14:01 | comment | added | Michael Harvey | I had a 'digital' clock (thus correctly described) that had numbers on the circumference of two wheel, 0-23 for the hours, and 00 to 59 for the minutes. The numbers showed through square holes. It was driven by a synchronous AC motor and gears. If you unplugged it it stayed at the last time displayed. There were knobs to set the time if it had lost power or had been stored. | |
| Aug 29 at 13:55 | comment | added | Michael Harvey | @TinfoilHat - my bedside digital clock (a radio controlled one) says 14:53.45 right now. I can't see any 'AM' or 'PM' marker. | |
| Aug 29 at 12:51 | answer | added | Russell McMahon | timeline score: -4 | |
| Aug 29 at 10:33 | answer | added | Justin Hollingsworth | timeline score: -3 | |
| Aug 29 at 9:57 | comment | added | user618322 | The "digital clock" (widget) on my phone (that I'm looking at right now) would, if it were 'frozen' only be "right" once/day... I prefer seeing "24hr" time on the display over "AM/PM"... Much like "the other man's grass..." losing relative popularity, now that more and more urbanites live in towers of apartments... | |
| Aug 29 at 8:33 | comment | added | infinitezero | @TinfoilHat a broken digital clock typically shows nothing. A broken analog clock still has their hands pointing at a time. Not sure what AM or PM has to do with it. | |
| Aug 29 at 8:02 | answer | added | ermanen | timeline score: 2 | |
| Aug 29 at 7:48 | answer | added | GalacticYear | timeline score: 6 | |
| Aug 28 at 19:31 | comment | added | JimmyJames | "is a saying used to express that even an entity which is typically wrong, would sometimes be right accidentally." I know it's not the question but the way understand this more like when someone continually predicts something cyclical (e.g. a stock market crash) that eventually they will be right. | |
| Aug 28 at 13:21 | comment | added | Jim Mack | Also, I've only heard the expression as "stopped clock", not "broken clock". A clock can be broken in ways that make it unreadable. | |
| Aug 28 at 12:59 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | Iām almost tempted to suggest āa broken day is right twice a clockā, but I wonāt. // @TinfoilHat But a broken digital clock is generally just a blank screen and thus never right. | |
| Aug 28 at 10:52 | answer | added | Henry | timeline score: 4 | |
| Aug 28 at 1:52 | comment | added | Tinfoil Hat | @JimMack ā Digital comes with an AM or PM marker | |
| Aug 27 at 21:13 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Aug 27 at 15:00 | vote | accept | Young Jun Lee | ||
| Aug 27 at 14:33 | answer | added | Edwin Ashworth | timeline score: 26 | |
| Aug 27 at 13:49 | history | edited | tchristā¦ |
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| Aug 27 at 13:41 | history | edited | tchristā¦ | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Aug 27 at 13:37 | comment | added | Jim Mack | Interestingly (to me), this idiom is probably understood by many fewer people than it was when analog clocks were the primary timekeepers. | |
| Aug 27 at 13:27 | history | edited | fev | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Aug 27 at 13:13 | answer | added | fev | timeline score: 10 | |
| S Aug 27 at 13:04 | review | First questions | |||
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| S Aug 27 at 13:04 | history | asked | Young Jun Lee | CC BY-SA 4.0 |