The one kind of late-night party where you absolutely want a clock is a new year's eve party! Some friends of mine often host such a party. They have an antiqu

The one kind of late-night party where you absolutely want a clock is a new year's eve party! Some friends of mine often host such a party. They have an antique grandfather clock, which is ideal for this purpose. Except it's in poor shape, and usually stopped. So now a traditional element of the party is one of them standing on the arm of a sofa wrangling the clock at a few minutes to midnight, desperately trying to unstop the flow of time before we run out.