"WE are not saints", admits Estragon to Vladimir, "but we have kept our appointment. How many people can make as great a boast?" Godot, for whom the pair were en attendant in Beckett's play, would be roundly condemned in Japan today as very non PC. June 10th, if my information is correct, is Time Observance Day in that country - a day on which every conscientious citizen must make a special effort to be punctual, and be on time for all engagements.
Punctuality, however, depends crucially on that perennial question "what's the time?" and the answer is never as obvious as one might think. If, for example, you arrange to meet a meteorologist at 7.30 p.m. the chances are that it may be noted as "1830 UTC". The hour of difference is easily explained by a curious habit of relating all activities to a London suburb known as Greenwich, but the designation "UTC" requires an eclaircissment.
Traditional notions of timekeeping were based on the length of time it takes the earth to revolve upon its axis - or more specifically, on the time interval between two successive transits of the sun over a particular meridian. But if you measure carefully, you will find that these intervals are not all of equal length near Christmas for example, the 24 hour" day is about a minute longer than it is in mid September - so we take an average, and the time based on this average day is called "Mean Time".
But Mean Time, too, can vary slightly - depending, among other things, on where on the surface of the earth it happens to be measured. Back in the 1920s, therefore, another average, this time geographical, was adopted it was based on measurements at a number of places around the world, and became known as UT, or Universal Time.
Then in the 1960s, modern technology provided yet another option. Recognising that the spinning globe was unreliable, scientists concentrated, instead upon the "second and defined it as 9,192,631,770 vibrations of the caesium-133 atom. They used this accurate and very constant unit as a building block with which to regulate the world's affairs, and calleg the result International Atomic Time - or TAI.
Finally, in order to keep atomic clocks in touch with the real world, it was decided that "leap seconds" should be inserted every now and then as necessary, so as to stay in step with the rotating earth and Universal Time. The dates for the insertion of these extra beats are decided internationally - and the result is Coordinated Universal Time, or using the French initials, UTC.