[Tutor] displaying clock and/or elapsed time

[Art Kendall]

I am learning python and I want to see how long parts of of a process 
take.  Are there system variables that can just be displayed?
how do I get variables that contain the wall time (x) and the elapsed 
time (y)?

I would like to put little messages on the screen while I am developing 
a python script so I can see how long things are taking.

Is it something like
print ' starting part1' (x y)
to put the times on the screen?

Is it something like
logfile.write( x,y)
to put the times in the log file.


Art