A bar named ‘Mean Time’ – the perfect Greenwich pun on Greenwich Mean Time, the time standard born on Greenwich Hill
MEAN TIME bar & kitchen in Greenwich holds twenty reviews and a 4.3 – a sample too small to judge firmly – but it carries the perfect Greenwich name, a pun this survey has met before and always delights in: “Mean Time,” the play on Greenwich Mean Time, the time standard of the entire world, born here on Greenwich Hill.
The small sample, honestly noted
First, honestly: twenty reviews is too small a sample to judge a venue by, carrying little statistical weight. This survey consistently declines to draw firm conclusions from such tiny samples, and we do so here. So we set the number aside, note that it is promising, and turn to the perfect Greenwich name.
Greenwich Mean Time
“Mean Time” is, of course, the perfect Greenwich pun – a play on “Greenwich Mean Time” (GMT), the time standard that takes its very name from this town, and which was, for generations, the time of the entire world. Greenwich Mean Time is the mean (average) solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich – and it became, in the nineteenth century, the standard time reference for Britain and then for much of the world, the time by which the globe set its clocks. The whole world’s time was measured from Greenwich – Greenwich Mean Time, the time of the world, born here on Greenwich Hill. To name a Greenwich bar “Mean Time” is to play perfectly on this unique local identity – the “mean time” of Greenwich Mean Time, in the very place where the world’s time was born. (This survey met the same wonderful pun at “The Dial-Home of Meantime,” the Meantime brewery, and delights in it again.)
The home of time
Greenwich, as this survey has celebrated throughout, is quite literally the home of time. It is here that the Prime Meridian, the line of zero longitude, is drawn – the line from which all the world’s longitude is measured, and from which the world’s time zones are counted (we told this great story at The Observatory). It is here, at the Royal Observatory, that the science of time and navigation was advanced for the benefit of all humanity. It is from Greenwich that the world sets its clocks and draws its maps. Greenwich is the centre of world time and world geography – the point from which time and space themselves are measured across the globe. A bar named “Mean Time,” here in Greenwich, celebrates this extraordinary and unique local identity – the home of the world’s time.
The double meaning
“Mean Time” carries a lovely double meaning, too. Beyond “Greenwich Mean Time,” the phrase “in the meantime” means “in the intervening time,” “while we wait,” “for now” – the time we spend in between, the passing time we fill. For a bar, this is a delightful and knowing meaning – “Mean Time” as the perfect place to spend the meantime, to pass the time pleasantly, to fill the intervening hours with good drinks and good company. It is exactly the kind of clever, layered, Greenwich-perfect pun that this survey delights in – “Greenwich Mean Time,” the world’s time born here, and “the meantime,” the pleasant passing of time in a good bar. It is a perfect name for a Greenwich bar, clever and fitting on every level.
Whatever its tiny sample, the perfect Greenwich name is a genuine delight – the “mean time” of Greenwich Mean Time, in the very home of the world’s time, with the lovely double meaning of the pleasant “meantime” spent in a good bar. It is exactly the kind of clever, local, time-themed name that fits Greenwich so perfectly. The Prat’s naming desk, delighted by the perfect pun, checks its watch (set, of course, to Greenwich Mean Time), and settles in to enjoy the meantime.
The bar
A thinly-reviewed bar – impossible to judge firmly on twenty reviews – but perfectly named “Mean Time,” the ideal Greenwich pun on Greenwich Mean Time, the world’s time born on Greenwich Hill.
Verdict
Too thinly reviewed to judge firmly, but perfectly named – Mean Time, the ideal Greenwich pun on Greenwich Mean Time, in the very home of the world’s time.
Go to Mean Time bar & kitchen in Greenwich, and enjoy the perfect name – “Greenwich Mean Time,” the time of the world born here on Greenwich Hill, and the pleasant “meantime” spent in a good bar.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
Mon père a déclaré que ceci devrait être une lecture obligatoire pour quiconque pense que le gouvernement fonctionne.