How fast is a 'jiffy'?

In response to last week’s question, "How fast is a 'jiffy'?," my writing and sailing friend Rich professed, "If you ask my wife, eight months, fourteen days, six hours, nine minutes and counting from the last time I said that I would clean the garage in a jiffy."

My adjunct executive friend Lindy observed, "A jiffy seems to be either long, as when somebody tells me I’ll be back in a jiffy and I seem to wait and wait and wait; or it’s very short, as when I tell someone I will be done in a jiffy and it takes me longer than I expected.  Either way, a jiffy is always the wrong amount of time, either too long or too short." And then my birthday bud Jon queried, "Creamy or smooth?"

My temple friend Vivian noted, "I believe that answer would depend on your age.  My jiffy twenty years ago is definitely not my jiffy now." 

My technology marketing friend Rashida first response was "For me, saying I'll be there in a "jiffy" means I'm moving faster than usual to get to where I'm going."  (Thank you, Rashida.)

As points of reference, the thoughts were

my temple friend Richard:           Not as a fast as a “in a blink of the eye,” but faster than “in a flash”.

my dad's beach buddy Bob:        Just in front of a dash and a rush.

my temple friend Tracey:             More than a second and less than a while. 

my sister-in-law Lorrie:                  Jiffy is slower than 'in a jif."

my marketing friend Megan:      Just slightly longer than my grandmother’s favorite -- “two shakes of a lamb’s tail”.

my interfaith friend Ann:              More than a New York minute but less than "pretty quick"

my social media friend Mark:      Way faster than ASAP | A bit slower than RUSH | Slower than YESTERDAY | Faster than IT'S IN THE MAIL | Slower than THE BOSS SAID NOW.

My neighbor Al, who appreciates science, called out, "It all depends on the context.  It is approximately the amount of time it takes light to travel one centimeter in a vacuum.  Approximately 33.3564 picoseconds.  In electronics, it is one cycle of alternating current.  So 1/60 or 1/50 of a second depending upon where you live. In computing, it is the time for two clock ticks of your processor.  So that varies with the processor speed………..and in "wife" time, as in "I'll be ready in a jiffy" snail racing comes to mind."

 My sailing friend Kurt shared, "It depends on who's jiffy you are talking about, according to Jiffy Lube about 10 minutes, per my wife way shorter," while my cycling friend

Ted felt, "at Jiffy Lube it seems to be a few hours!"

And my equestrian friend Royce was wondering, "As in Jiffy Mart?"

Then please send me your thoughts about this week's "things that make you go 'Hmmm' ":

What is the right kind of crazy? (from my sailing friend Rich)

We don't stop laughing because we get old. We get old because we stop laughing.  Make it a priority to have fun and make others laugh.

Hal

Thanks to Demetri Martin, Steven Wright and George Carlin for the inspiration for Hmmm.   I invite you to call or email me to catch up.