Off the Clock: A Lexicon of Time Words and Expressions

By Kimberly Olson Fakih

Off the Clock is a wonderfully varied collection of words about time and the legends, historical anecdotes, and scientific facts that explain the expressions. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395663741
• ISBN13: 9780395663745
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.8" x 6.5"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

YOU NEED TO TAKE THE TIME TO READ THIS ONE!

First, in case there is any doubt in anyone's mind, I am a simple person who enjoys simple things. I also am a collector of absolutely worthless information (to anyone but myself), and enjoy odd things...as long as they are simple. I actually do enjoy watching a cat sleep, and indeed, the grass grow. This little book, a simple book, is an absolute delight for folks like me. The powers that be have declared this a work for fifth grade and up. I have to agree with that, but certainly not in the condescending manner the School Library Journal or Booklist have. Those people are so very much brighter and knowledgeable than most of us, that it is difficult to write a review of a work they have already covered. I personally have found that a lot of the little volumes found in our "children's libraries" are just as informative as those found in dusty Doctorial dissertations, and that they certainly a lot more fun! Off The Clock, by Kimberly Olson Fakih, is simply a hoot and is a very informative read, for both the young and the not so young! This short book deals with time. It is a collection of folklore, tales, historical data, expressions, words, phrases and bits of this a chunks of that, all dealing with time. Do you know how quick a "blink" is? What is a Canonical hour? When is eventide? Do you know what Linnaeus's Flower Clock is and do you know how to read it? (Like say, if I would tell you it is half-past a White Water Lily, would you know the time?). How about the word or term "Kairos" and how would you apply it to a kiss? When is "tea time" and did you know it is different for Alice (of Wonderland fame) and Winnie the Pooh? How long was an Aztec or Maya year...hint, they called it a "lamat." As has been pointed out, there is no index in this book, so it makes this work a bit difficult to use when doing a research paper for school. Gosh, how terrible. Can you imagine the horror that one must go through reading a work simply for the sheer joy and general curiosity, and not being able to use it as a reference footnote? Gasp...that is almost academically sacrilegious! I suppose we should try to purge our public and school libraries of such trivial tripe. (He sarcastically said). This book has been delightfully illustrated with black and white engravings, which resemble old wood engravings, most in a medieval style...very simple, but very effective. The text is easy on the eye and mind. It informs in a conversational mode and will not send your eyes to the back of your head out of sheer boredom when you read it. The author can be both amusing and poetic, all in the same paragraph. The book has been criticized for not being detailed enough for those who want more information on some of the subjects addressed here. Here again, it seems it is a terrible thing to force someone to actually do their own research on a subject that interest them. Well, it is the "shank of the afternoon" here, and near my tea time and I do no