It is nearly midnight, and a large crowd has gathered on the final night of their Clocks of the World tour, to witness the spectacle called "The Reversal of the Great Greed".

The timepiece itself in appearance is like an overgrown grandfather clock. It is tall and appropriately ornate, in a gothic style, heavily encrusted with "Bruegel like" peasant figures. The eyes of the throng reach up to focus on the double doors positioned just under the actual clockface, as they spring open at the arrival of the appointed hour.

From behind the doors the large head of an old woman cranes out. Before the crowd can react, the mouth of the figure gapes open. In the manner of a cuckoo clock launching its diminutive bird, an amorphous object carefully unfolds like a piece of mechanical origami, revealing itself to be a life sized galloping horse. As the hidden gears and cogs spin and crank, the horse rears back its head, opening its mouth from which, in similar manner, unfolds cow. This process continues with a goat, dog, cat and bird, each erupting and unfurling from the gaping mouth of the previous animal figure.

The penultimate spider fidgets on the end of the bird's elongated tongue momentarily, before unleashing a tiny mechanical fly that dangles on a thread just above the heads of the mesmerised audience. The whole process had taken just a minute to complete. While the cameras continue to flash, the entire event begins to play backwards. Each creature swallows its prey in turn, and all are finally transported back into the mouth of the old woman of the clock, primed for another night, as the doors swing shut.
-- xenzag, Mar 17 2006

Song http://www.poppyfie...songs/oldwoman.html
based on...... [xenzag, Mar 17 2006]

reminds me of the Guinness clocks http://website.line...history.htm#Animals
[po, Mar 17 2006]

I would hate to see what would happen if this jammed up somewhere between the dog and cat.

Nice [+]
-- skinflaps, Mar 17 2006


"Greed is good"
-- DrCurry, Mar 17 2006


Nothing in me really ages.
-- reensure, Mar 17 2006



random, halfbakery