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Home page -> Targum Authors -> Roth, Zev -> 10:10:00
10:10:00
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Book Excerpt from 10:10:00
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10:10
It's about time! A collection of six gripping fictional Jewish tales which use out-of-world themes to give us down-to-earth lessons for Jewish life.
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Leibel was learning in his study when he heard the gentle knock on his door. “What now?” he thought in an instant of impatience, but managed to say politely, “Come in.” His wife took a half-step in and said, “Honey, a Mr. Williams is here to see you.”
“Who?”
“Williams is the name he gave; he says he’s from Current Legends.”
“Oh, him. Thank you, dear, please show him in.” She left and softly closed the door behind her.
Leibel closed his ArtScroll Gemara and stared at the door, waiting anxiously for it to open. He felt his pulse increase. “Could it be? After all these years?”
His wife escorted a man in his mid-forties into the room. Mr. Williams looked haggard, harried, and tired, behind his expensive suit and shiny attache case. As he came closer, Leibel noticed the rings under his guest’s eyes.
Williams approached the desk, extended his hand, and said in a monotone, “Scott Williams, I just arrived from New York.”
Leibel reached a hand up from his wheelchair and smiled. “Pleased to meet you. I’m Leibel Gaines. Have a seat, please.”
Williams didn’t have to be told twice. He almost collapsed into the leather seat in front of Leibel’s mahogany desk. As he did, he craned his neck around the study.
“Nice place you’ve got here.”
"I like it.”
Williams looked out the window to his right. “You have such a magnificent view. That’s Jaffa Gate there, isn’t it?”
“I’m more interested in being close to the Western Wall. Is this your first time in David’s Village?”
“Actually, it’s my first trip to Israel. I’m still jet lagged, but my schedule doesn’t include time for rest. I came specially to speak to you.”
Leibel lifted his palm in pretended ignorance. “Me? About what?”
Williams let out a sigh that said “I hope this won’t be too difficult.” After another look out the window he squared his sagging shoulders and addressed his subject. “Mr. Gaines, I’m the co-founder of a website called Current Legends. What we do is examine any legend or myth that’s being told in our society today, and try to track it down to reality, or else to demonstrate that it’s a fantasy. By now we’ve successfully traced the origin of all sorts of common beliefs, and the reasons behind many popular customs. You may have seen some of our findings; they’ve been released in a series of books. Perhaps you’ve seen our new cable TV show, or the website?”
“No, I don’t have a television, and I don’t use my Internet connection for those sorts of things.”
“Oh –.” This one was a peculiar customer, no mistake about it. “Well, we just did something that may interest you. We did a full report of how Secretary of State Colin Powell learned to speak Yiddish!”
Leibel smiled. “You know, I read all about that in a book I bought recently, The Monsey-Kiryat Sefer Express.”
“Yes, we quoted from that book on our program. Now, what I’m here for today is to ask you about a phenomenon that’s been around for close to thirty-five years.”
“Thirty-five years, you say?” said Leibel, tension and surprise mingling in his voice.
“Yes; our team has done research and conducted interviews, and in the end we were told that you’re the one I need to speak with.”
Leibel looked more dismayed than shocked. He pointed to his chest: “Me?” He hesitated. This man obviously knew. But Leibel really, really didn’t want to talk about it. “What would I know?” he protested, but he knew the charade wasn’t going over.
Williams sighed again and looked down for a moment. It was going harder than he’d hoped for. He looked up and said, “We want to know something about advertisements for watches.”
Leibel put on his best thoughtful look as he raised one eyebrow. “Watch ads?” he queried blandly.
Williams leaned forward. “Mr. Gaines, we have been asked by many of our site visitors why, in every ad, the hands of the watch are always on the same time: ten minutes past ten.”
So he did know. All the same, Leibel did not want to talk about it.
“Is that so?”
“Yes, and the amazing thing is the universality of the phenomenon. With very few exceptions, in every ad for every brand of watch for the past thirty-five years, the minute hand is on the two and the hour hand on the ten.”
Leibel could only think that he must go on stonewalling this inquisitive stranger. Maybe he’d go away. “Oh, surely it can’t be so universal as all that.”
* * *
Suddenly Williams leaned forward, placed his hands on the desk, and said forcefully, “Mr. Gaines, stop toying with me. My research team have gone thoroughly into this phenomenon. We have reviewed watch ads published over the past thirty-five years. This pose appears in almost every ad, from every company, in every magazine, in every country. It doesn’t matter if it’s a five-dollar watch or a twenty-five-thousand-dollar one. It doesn’t matter if it’s a man’s Cartier, a woman’s diamond-studded Daniel Roth, or a kid’s Mickey Mouse watch. The hands on every watch, everywhere, are always on or near the same time–10:10. There’s no parallel for this in all of advertising history. I’m here to find out why!” Williams was almost shouting.
Leibel scoured back in his chair. He said softly, “Why do you ask me?”
“You were once the CEO of Barker and Carbo, weren’t you? The kings of Madison Avenue, that had most of the major watch accounts thirty-five years ago. This business all started while you were there, isn’t that right?”
“Yes.”
“And my people tell me you were the one responsible for it. You must have had a reason. Something happened at ten minutes past ten, right?”
Silence.
“Those numbers mean something. What do they mean?”
“It’s like I told you, the watch just looks nice that way.”
Williams rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. He had hoped it wouldn’t be so difficult. “I didn’t want to resort to this, Mr. Gaines, but you leave me no choice.”
“Resort to what?” said Leibel apprehensively.
“You aren’t the first advertising executive I’ve spoken to. I know what went on at that convention.”
Leibel raised his eyebrows in shock. How did Williams know about that? He parried with an innocent-sounding “Which convention?”
“The one in Geneva.”