Timekeepers

~ ~ ~ All content Copyright 2003 on behalf of its creators; please obtain permission for anything besides private, noncommercial use ~ ~ ~

Photographer's notes: This clock, by the architect Philip Johnson, has four faces -- two are on the opposite side (Fig. 2); "in part to allow pedestrians, those in vehicles, and visitors in Dante Park all to have visual access to the current time. This should be something useful, especially right before curtain time at the various venues at Lincoln Center." (Source: Philip Johnson/Alan Ritchie Architects)

The clock was sponsored by Sonia and Gedalio Grinberg. Mr. Gedalio is the chairman of the Movado Group (note Fig. 1) and former chairman of the American Ballet Theater.

The Rube imagines the Grinbergs sitting at their breakfast nook in the apartment building in the background, looking down at the clock and feeling beneficent ... much as he himself felt that time he broke down and gave $25 to NPR. It was SO worth it; for the whole rest of the Pledge Week he didn't have to feel like that guy in Crime and Punishment: "Who is the murderer? Why YOU, Rube Rubanovitch -- you are the murderer. It is you and no one else."