Time Essay: IN (SLIGHT) PRAISE OF TARDINESS

A dillar, a dollar A ten o'clock scholar, What makes you come so soon? You used to come at ten o'clock, But now you come at noon.

—Mother Goose

THE message begins in the cradle and ends only in the grave: be on time. The early bird gets the worm. Time is money. Punctuality is the politeness of kings. Though our society has learned to excuse almost anything else, it still finds one sin—tardiness—unpardonable. It is as if we had collectively accepted Alice's harried, harassed White Rabbit ("Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I...

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