Tick-tock

Posted by Baceseras on March 23, 2009 at 12:58

In Reply to: Tick-tock posted by Smokey Stover on March 19, 2009 at 01:27:

: : : White House press secretary Robert Gibbs responded yesterday to a reporter's request for when the Administration knew something, and when they knew, it by saying "I don't have a particular tick-tock in front of me. And, obviously, I was not involved in all of those conversations."

: : : That's a new one on me, and I expect to hear it a lot where I would have heard "time frame" in the past.

: : Journalism talk. I guess it means chronology or maybe all the steps/events leading up to something.

: The use of "tick tock" that I have encountered a good deal lately is as an admonition, especially in television dramas. "I haven't got the money yet. Give me another day." "Tick tock, Giorgio, tick tock. Tomorrow may be too late." In other words, time's a-wastin', so get cracking.
: SS

[It must be contagious. Ray Suarez used it Friday night on PBS's News Hour, in his interview with William Cohan, author of a book on the collapse of the investment banking firm Bear-Stearns. I think this link will take you to a video of the interview; the "tick-tock" comes early, about fifty-five seconds in. [Dead link removed - ed] The meaning, as stated above, appears to be "a chronological narrative of events". -Bac.]