The Argyle Sweater by Scott Hilburn for August 28, 2022

Wow, Ben really got wound up! Take a second and explain it to her, she might need to take a minute…

Now explain to her why the largest unit has the smallest hand and vice versa.

You’ll have to give her the news first hand.

They don’t sell raspberry berets?

And NO digital timepieces, either!

History: The first mechanical clocks were in the towers of buildings and had only one hand which showed the hour in imitation of the shadow on a sundial (in the northern hemisphere which explains why the hands go clockwise).

But when it became necessary to show smaller units of time than an hour, another hand was added to show more minute /mi-NOOT/ divisions. The word attached itself to both the “minute hand” and the units it showed.

But eventually it became necessary to subdivide minutes. The first hand added was for minutes, so the second hand added was to display, of course, seconds.

(If you want citations and footnotes, go look them up yourselves. I have comics to read.)

The store is for clocks that need a second second hand.

Second hand is around the corner from The First Mates Ambidextrous School of Palmistry.

Times up! Actually he’s just trying to wind her up.

Gimme a second and let me think!

Took me a while, Very good!

If they had bugs climbing all over the clocks, they could call the bugs “Time Flys”!

Does Stan also have a separate Minute Hand and Hour Hand stores?

The Second-Hand Store has since been shut down by DeSantis, because he believes that it’s mainly for “lefties”.

“Do you know what a balm is?” —Jackie Chiles, Seinfeld

He should make a video and explain it on tick-tock

I read the caption before I processed the picture and my initial thought was to wonder whether it was the left or right hand. Gruesome!

I already have two hands. What good would a “second hand” do me?

Well he didn’t call her a “Ding Ding Dong”

Second hand Rose…

I recognise that clock! He was on the Captain Kangaroo show…

She must be a Tic-Toc user!

Funny :D

Arrrr!

Apparently not…

Let’s tock about it. :)

Ha! I passed by a store in Brooklyn a few weeks back that called itself a “second hand store”, and my thought at the time was that it must be something like what is depicted in this ‘toon. (The security gate was down over the store at the time, so I couldn’t verify.)

I hope she’s not looking for sloppy seconds.

Bugrit, millennium hand and shrimp!

As for this geezer, a second hand on a grandfather clock was either hilarious or irritating. But I became an engineer anyway.

How insulting. I challenge you. My second shall be calling on you.

I remember being very confused as a child when a teacher asked someone if their watch had “a second hand”. To me all clocks and watches had two hands, i.e., the first hand showed the hour, and the second hand showed the minutes. A clock or watch with only one (the first) hand wasn’t near as useful as one having both a first and second hand! It was only later I learned that this referred to another hand showing the seconds! In other words, the seconds were shown by a third hand (the second hand was actually the third hand). Of course now there are watches that display all sorts of things, so it could be argued that these have fourth, fifth, and perhaps even more hands.

A related pun I drew long ago: https://www.deviantart.com/deckardcanine/art/Secondhand-Lion-77242687

Selling second hands is not the same ‘ting as selling second-hand items, unless you’re talking second-hand second hands!

Technically, it’s a “seconds hand”.

his second hand shop is second to none…

Oh boy . . . .