There's a radio play by Tom Stoppard called "If You're Glad, I'll Be Frank" where a man falls in love with the sound of the voice of the recorded clock (you can dial up and get the time in Britain from a recorded female voice). It is very funny. Throughout the play (about 15 minutes long) Frank speaks passionately to this voice, saying that he is sure she is a real person, etc., and the voice drones on in absolute automatic sequence, minute by minute ("At the tone, it will be 8:04 precisely; at the tone it ...."). Then, finally, he says something that gets to her, and the voice pauses for a fraction of a microsecond -- thus revealing that he was right all along. It is a classic moment, in part because the audience has in the course of a couple of minutes internalized the absolute regularity of the timing of the voice, and the absolute microsecond pause leaps out at you.

yours, Peter T.