The One Second Happening

Alice's Church (not Restaurant...that's on down the road)

The U.S. Naval Observatory, keeper of the Pentagon's master clock, said it would add the extra second on Wednesday in coordination with the world's atomic clocks at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC.

That corresponds to 6:59:59 p.m. EST (23:59:59 GMT), when an extra second will tick by -- the 24th to be added to UTC since 1972, when the practice began.

So a single extra second is being added to our New Year's Eve this year, and that has me thinking about what one might DO with such finite bounty. I mean, what could we do, COLLECTIVELY, that might actually make a difference? WELL...

I received the following suggestion via a Druid friend, and I think it's a GRAND idea:

“Idea: since the pentagon is stopping the clock to catch up to earths rotation, we get an entire extra second this New Years. How about we all use that second to call out, 'Peace!'?"

So here's the plan. On Wednesday, the 31st of December, at whatever local adjusted time corresponds to the official 23:59:59 GMT time of addition (3:59:59pm Pacific Daylight Savings time, for example), let's all just stop wherever we are and cry out to the Cosmos "PEACE!"

To end this on a note of good humour and hope, I'll let Arlo Guthrie speak his famous conclusion to Alice's Restaurant:

"And the only reason I'm singing you this song now is cause you may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if you're in a situation like that there's only one thing you can do and that's walk into the shrink wherever you are, just walk in and say "Shrink, you can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant," and walk out. You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them. And if three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in, singin' a bar of Alice's Restaurant, and walking out? They may think it's an organization. And can you, I mean, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in, singin' a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends, they may think it's a movement."

That's right, folks, we ARE a movement. A movement for hope and peace and ALL that groovy jazz. So stop what you're doing Wednesday afternoon and give a big ol' shout out for PEACE! Now why not sing along with Arlo and me...

You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant

You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant