def _interpret_as_minutes(sval, mdict):
    """
    Times like "1:22" are ambiguous; do they represent minutes and seconds
    or hours and minutes?  By default, timeparse assumes the latter.  Call
    this function after parsing out a dictionary to change that assumption.
    
    >>> import pprint
    >>> pprint.pprint(_interpret_as_minutes('1:24', {'secs': '24', 'mins': '1'}))
    {'hours': '1', 'mins': '24'}
    """
    if sval.count(':') == 1 and '.' not in sval and ('hours' not in mdict or
        mdict['hours'] is None) and ('days' not in mdict or mdict['days'] is
        None) and ('weeks' not in mdict or mdict['weeks'] is None):
        mdict['hours'] = mdict['mins']
        mdict['mins'] = mdict['secs']
        mdict.pop('secs')
        pass
    return mdict
