I’ve just learned that, with the MySQL command line client, one can run \s or status; and get a nice readout of status information. Among other things, it gives a nice human readable uptime status, the search for which led me to this StackOverflow answer providing that as a solution. Neither seem to work through other types of connections, such as what we get with a programming language, which limits its usefulness, but it’s nice for server administration. If I came across this in the past, I certainly don’t remember it.