A phrase for inconvenient timing?

Well, you can always go for ironic versions like "inevitable". Or "welcome" (as in "just as the traffic slowed to a crawl, I was seranaded by the welcome sound of my tire flop-flop-flopping merrily on the baking hot pavement"). But failing that, the only word that comes to mind is "inconvenient"—though sometimes that word seems far too mild to carry the necessary weight.

arke said:

I was wondering if there is a phrase that describes the occurrence of something (usually undesirable) at an inconvenient time? For instance, running out of gas on the way to an important meeting. If not a phrase, then maybe there is a "law" of some kind?

"Murphy's Law" is phrased a lot of different ways, but one form says "anything that can go wrong will, and at the worst possible time".

So if you need a term for just the second part of that, you might call it "Murphy's Corollary".

Thanks - that sounds reasonable, although I am still holding out hope for a more pithy way of expressing this thought!

An uncommon word, intuitive despite its rarity, would be inopportunity. Inopportune is more common.

Wordnik: inopportunity
Dictionary.com: inopportunity
Websters: inopportunity
etc.

It knocks a lot, and at just the wrong times.