Tick-Tock Tummy

Have you ever noticed that some people, if you ask them if they are hungry, will look at their watches? "It's 11:30 and lunch isn't until noon," they'll say, bellies grumbling. Or, "It's 4 o'clock - too soon for dinner."

Time wasn't the question, hunger was. And, the last time I checked, hunger was a feeling, not an item on a schedule.

I know many of us have to eat by the clock when we're at work, but regimenting our hunger on the weekends is just sad. After all, it wasn't until Nov. 18, 1883 that time, as we know it, in the United States even existed. That was the date city authorities reset their clocks to mesh with railroad schedules. Before then, there were more than 300 U.S. time zones. If it was "too early" for lunch in one town, just go to the next one.

So why do we feel the need, today, to schedule things our great-grandmothers would just do by instinct, such as eating when she was hungry?