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@@ -11,6 +11,30 @@
 @cindex date input formats
 @findex getdate
 
+@quotation
+Our units of temporal measurement, from seconds on up to months, are so
+complicated, asymmetrical and disjunctive so as to make coherent mental
+reckoning in time all but impossible.  Indeed, had some tyrannical god
+contrived to enslave our minds to time, to make it all but impossible
+for us to escape subjection to sodden routines and unpleasant surprises,
+he could hardly have done better than handing down our present system.
+It is like a set of trapezoidal building blocks, with no vertical or
+horizontal surfaces, like a language in which the simplest thought
+demands ornate constructions, useless particles and lengthy
+circumlocutions.  Unlike the more successful patterns of language and
+science, which enable us to face experience boldly or at least
+level-headedly, our system of temporal calculation silently and
+persistently encourages our terror of time.
+
+@dots{}  It is as though architects had to measure length in feet, width
+in meters and height in ells; as though basic instruction manuals
+demanded a knowledge of five different languages.  It is no wonder then
+that we often look into our own immediate past or future, last Tuesday
+or a week from Sunday, with feelings of helpless confusion.  @dots{}
+
+--- Robert Grudin, @cite{Time and the Art of Living}.
+@end quotation
+
 This section describes the textual date representations that GNU
 programs accept.  These are the strings you, as a user, can supply as
 arguments to the various programs.  The C interface (via the