May 4, 2006 - Shady Sundial

They say that even a broken clock is right twice a day. Well, I don’t think they can say such a thing about a broken sundial, or a sundial at night, in the shade, or on a cloudy day. Those particular sundials are always not right.

Speaking of being not right, it appears that in the last week the dedicated staff of edhat.com has now been wrong three times. First, we messed up on the name of Buster Brown’s dog. Then, we incorrectly called out Life Magazine instead of National Geographic. Yesterday’s blunder was a blender blunder. We received a bunch of emails from Blender’s enthusiasts who pointed out that the price we quoted for the local shop was for a 24-ounce drink. They don’t sell a sweet 16. You might say we were comparing Red Apples to Red Orange.

Ed told us to fix the error. In order to do a fair comparison, we need to use ratios. Jamba Juice charges $3.05 for a 16Oz and $3.85 for a 24Oz. Now if Blender’s charges $3.95 for a 24Oz - lets see, cross-multiply and divide by the coefficient – they theoretically would charge $3.13 for a 16Oz. That’s the second cheapest smoothie in town. And rest assured Scott, we have updated yesterday’s story in our archive to include this figure.

Back to today’s Daily Edhat, which, by the way, is being written from a table just outside Pierre Lafond at Paseo Nuevo, where screaming children wearing Superman shirts are chasing mangy pigeons across the promenade. Tally Counter (TC) tells us there are 22 pigeons. When the chase ends, a baby in a stroller starts throwing freshly bought bread for the pigeons. The pigeon population in the promenade increases to 25, then to 26, and on to 27. They seem to be flying in by the second. Pigeons don’t need instant messaging for their flash mobs.

Across the way is the Paseo Nuevo Cinemas. The marquis shows today’s movies are The Sentinel, United 93, Friends with Money, and Thank You For Smoking. Above the marquis is a little balcony (where people probably smoke). And above the balcony is the sundial featured as yesterday’s Wednesday Where Is It picture.

Wednesday was a cloudy, gloomy day. The sun was hiding behind a marine layer of clouds as thick as the loyalty to Blenders. There was not enough sunlight to cast a shadow on the sundial. But, because of the shady location of the sundial (that’s shady because its out of the sun, not because it’s next to Mel’s), and the fact that it faces the wrong direction, it seems like it wouldn’t even get sunlight on a cloudless day.

And why isn’t XII (twelve o’clock to you non-Romans) on the bottom of the dial? We could be wrong, but we always thought that high noon is called high because that’s where the sun is. If you want to look at a pretty wall decoration, then we guess that the sundial above the movie theater is nice. But, if you want know what time the movie starts, you’re going to have to rely upon something digital or something that ticks.

In yesterday’s contest, 12 subscribers - Annielope, Benjamin, Breefactor, Willg, Earth Mel, Nix, Bazaz, Antonio, Janie Lee, Spotboy, Crazylegs, and Silverbug -were able to correctly identified the location of the sundial. The Edhat Dog was called in to break the tie and award the t-shirt. The dedicated staff took our analog wall clock off the wall and placed a small treat on each of the twelve roman numerals that encircle the face. She ate the five o’clock piece first signifying the prize t-shirt as Earth Mel's. Mel's? Hmmm. No wonder he knew where the sundial was.

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