Daylight Saving Time has something in common with Communism, Nazism, and virtually the entire catalogue of 20th century ills. They, and it, all came out of World War I.
If you guessed from this that I am not a fan of daylight time, much less of starting it in the dead of winter, you are right.
Everyone is entitled to be a barnacled old reactionary on some topic, and Daylight Saving Time is mine.
Daylight time was originally the idea of an Englishman named William Willett, who started lobbying for it exactly a century ago. He gave all sorts of high-falutin’ reasons, but the real one seemed to be that he was a builder, and thought he would get more out of his construction workers. That was a compelling argument, but the Edwardians who ran the empire had more sense than that.
But a decade later, Kaiser Wilhelm adopted daylight time in 1916, during the Battle of Verdun. That inspired the British, who adopted it three weeks later. After all, it wouldn’t do to kill a man when you thought it was two o’ clock and he thought it three o’ clock. America soon followed Europe into the war and onto Daylight Saving Time. But Americans, especially farmers, didn’t like Daylight Time, and Congress got rid of it in 1919.
But the widespread use of electricity gradually made it more attractive. Michigan brought Daylight Time back after a close statewide vote in 1968, and concerns about energy conservation soon made the idea more popular.
The main rationale for Daylight Time always has been that people will have more sunlight later in the evening, and will hence use less electricity and do more things outdoors.
That makes some sense. Perhaps the best argument I have heard for Daylight Time is that studies show that fewer people watch prime-time TV when it is in effect. But there are a lot of negatives. People’s sleep schedules are disrupted. Light sleepers may take weeks to recover their equilibrium. Children have to go to school in the dark. In Grand Rapids, it will now remain dark until 8:30 in the morning in late October and November, thanks to extended Daylight Time. By the way, they tried to extend daylight time in parts of Australia in the winter of 2000.
Electricity consumption did not drop at all, and peak consumption actually increased in the morning. I think that is exactly what will happen here. Look: I could legally change my name to Leonardo DiCaprio, but that wouldn’t make supermodels chase me.
A thing is what it is. Six o clock is six o clock. It is supposed to be dark at six in January and light at six in June. It is not kind to tamper with Mother Nature; we do too much of that as it is.
The law is a law, and I will be moving my analog clocks ahead Sunday. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
To all the supporters of daylight savings time:
I HATE daylight savings time. In fact, I refuse to even call it that. I call it "Daylight Stupid Time". If i had the chance I'd make daylight STUPID time illegal.
What we have here is something that throws the life of 100% of the people living in the US into complete upheaval TWO times every year. Once would be bad enough.
It saves energy, you say...OK, then please provide me with even one empirically verifiable piece of evidence. Now, I fancy myself a man of science so I must admit that energy usage would be offset by a small percentage...but what are we really talking about here? A molecule of gasoline? A gallon? $20 off of my electric bill? WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT? This question, of course, assumes that supporters of daylight STUPID time really even know what they're talking about.
Let's start with the facts. Noon is DEFINED as the time when the sun is exactly above your location. That is how it is DEFINED...that's what it MEANS. If you want to divide the earth up into 24 time-zones, fine...that makes sense because we have 24 hours in our day.
How are you going to wait for the sun to be overhead one day, and then the next tell me that the exact same time is now an hour before or after noon? Make up your mind, and get your story straight, or I'm going to call you foolish.
Why don't I say that I have 783 fingers on my left hand? Everyone knows a human hand has only 5 fingers, just like everyone is supposed to know that noon is when the sun is directly overhead. It makes NO sense to continually redefine something that remains constant...but people do it with daylight STUPID time. So I'm going to do it with my hand. It's Noon, and exactly 24 hours later it's not? Well, my left hand has 783 fingers! IDIOTS!
(hey, I don't mean to offend, but keep in mind that Daylight Savings time offends me. I just thought people should know why.)
Posted by: Andy | March 09, 2007 at 03:00 PM
For those of us who sleep lightly and are not morning people in the first place, Daylight Saving Time means weeks of absolute hell while our bodies try to cope. I can see DST in the summer, when there's more to do outdoors, but March? November? Makes no sense! I'm not someone who enjoys thinking of his kid making her way to school in the dark, either. Congress often goes off half-cocked on some half-arsed tangent just because it sounds good in theory -- and most of those times, it's We the People who have to chafe under the results. Thanks, Jack; you hit the nail on the head again.
Posted by: BFC | March 10, 2007 at 02:14 PM
I remember Bush saying folks should not be bothered by terrorism on 9/11, they should still shop till they drop! I guess this is more of the same nonsense.
Posted by: Cat Chew | March 11, 2007 at 08:41 AM
Saves energy?
So what, am I going to have to pay less for gas? No.
Am I going to have to pay less for heat? No.
Am I going to have to pay less for electricity? No.
Where are these magical energy savings? So far, I've been exhausted at work all day today, and I haven't saved a penny. In fact, given how groggy I am right now, I'm probably costing my employer much more than they are saving.
Where are the magical savings???
Posted by: Mr. Me | March 12, 2007 at 09:59 AM