stroke

[lidiavianu]

I can't tell if it means time or illness in:

on the third stroke
it will be uncertain

I see in time it comes with 'at' not 'on'. Is that significant?

Lidia

[jno]

usually at or on the third stroke means time, for instance when you you phone a number to get the exact time ('On the third stroke it will be 11.31 and 15 seconds') - so he's saying that on the third stroke he doesn't know what time it will be, which I guess is a joke. But if he has been talking about illness elsewhere then maybe he is combining both meanings - which is also the sort of thing poetry does. So that could suggest the future is uncertain when you've had three strokes, and he's expressing it in terms of a telephone message about the stroke of a clock.

[lidiavianu]

I see.
Thank you!

Lidia

[Bellringer]

It is an Old Wives tale that if a person has a stroke (apoplexy) they may well have others. The tale goes that the third stroke will be fatal.
A bit like going down for the third time as in drowning. Neither having any basis in fact.

[lidiavianu]

That really makes sense. I will stick to stroke as cerebral, then?

Lidia