Time is a Subjective Dimension

A colleague in the US asked me, “How long since you were here?”

I answered, “Not sure, but I’m still wearing the underpants I bought when I was there last.”

Silence.

I realised where I went wrong and hastened to add, “No, like, I’ve taken them off and washed them and there were others in the pack. I was just trying to illustrate that it can’t have been decades because undies just don’t last that long and I’m still getting use out of those ones.”

“Ahuh.”

“You see, the airline lost my luggage between LAX and New York and I was at the end of about 48 hours in the air and I had to go up the road to a Target in the middle of a car park you could see from space and when I was there I bought some Fruit of the Loom undies because I could understand the language on the front of them compared to the other ones that had strange American terms like bikini briefs and shaped banana hammocks and stuff, so that’s why I’ve been able to place where those undies come from and therefore date how long it’s been since I was in the States.”

“So how old are the underpants?”

“They’re a bit younger than the socks I was given while driving a bus…”