noon
`` Well , I do n't , '' confessed the artist . The journalist said nothing , as it seemed unprofessional to admit ignorance of anything . `` It is simple enough , '' the soldier explained . `` You see , the world is revolving about the sun steadily , and it is always high noon somewhere on the globe . The day rolls round unceasing , and it is not cut off into twenty-four hours . We happen to have taken the day of Greenwich or Paris as the day of civilization , and we say that it begins earlier in China and later in California ; but it is all the same day , we say . Therefore there has to be some place out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where we lose or gain a day -- if we are going east , we gain it ; if we are going west , we lose it .