On Sept. 1, I will be cut off from CBC Radio. It’s just as well because my favourite CBC Radio show has been ruined.
I refer, of course, to the National Research Council Official Time Signal. This has been my favourite CBC radio show for 35 years. Not only because other CBC shows suck, but because it is very useful and always consistent.
It’s a short show. In fact, it only contains a few words: “The time at the tone, following 10 seconds of silence will indicate exactly 10 a.m.”
I’m a technologist. I have relied on this show to set my watch since many of our current leaders and bureaucrats were in diapers and the Internet was a zygote. I have set my watch to this show whilst programming data loggers and fighting off snow, rain, black flies and larger animals.
Now it’s all changed! Insidious ... It sounds like the same show, but now there are only six seconds of silence! Outrageous!
What will the Harper government do with those saved four seconds of silence? Will they be added to some addle-brained hippie’s prison sentence for growing nine pot plants instead of five?
This affects me deeply ... How can I fumble with my watch in time to set it to this Brave New World Six Second Schedule? Especially while I am trying to conceal my cellphone!
Today the National Research Council Official Time Signal, tomorrow who knows?
Section 35.2 and 36 of the Fisheries Act?! The Research Lakes District? CEAA? CEPA?
Recolonization of the Yukon?
Just sayin’... Remember the Dead Dog Cafe. “Stay calm. Be brave. Watch for the signs…”
Ken Nordin
Lake Laberge