From: b.scott@csuohio.edu   
      
   On Mon, 6 Oct 2014 15:09:22 -0400, Michelle Bottorff   
    wrote in   
    in   
   rec.arts.sf.composition:   
      
   > A. Tina Hall  wrote:   
      
   >>> Racciman's World is hard enough with a "don't use" list   
   >>> that includes: year, month, week, hour, minute, second,   
   >>> mile, ghost, and cat.  There may be more that I've   
   >>> forgotten.   
      
   >> That reminds me. I really don't like using hours or   
   >> minutes or seconds on not Earth worlds. Couldn't come up   
   >> with a replacement though, except moment or eyeblink for   
   >> second. If you have something for 'hour', tell me!   
      
   > I end up using heartbeats a lot, instead of seconds.  But   
   > hours are tough to do without.  Mostly I either get very   
   > vague and go for "a while", "a short while" or "a long   
   > while" or I use times of the day as reference points, so   
   > "later that afternoon," etc.   
      
   In his fantasy novels Modesitt generally uses ‘glass’; it’s   
   never defined, but context makes it clear that it’s an   
   hour-like unit of time.  In one series he uses ‘quint’ for a   
   smaller unit of time; I don’t think that he defines the   
   relationship between quint and glass, but I suspect that a   
   quint is a fifth of a glass; its usage seems to fit   
   something on the order of ten or fifteen minutes.  (In   
   another series he uses ‘quint’ for unit of time that is a   
   significant part of a year, probably a fifth of a year.)   
      
   [...]   
      
   Brian   
   --   
   It was the neap tide, when the baga venture out of their   
   holes to root for sandtatties.  The waves whispered   
   rhythmically over the packed sand: haggisss, haggisss,   
   haggisss.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)