Now that the election is over, maybe we can get back to talking about some of the really important things that have been neglected and/or overlooked for far too long. Last Saturday night was when everyone should have set their clocks back one hour for Daylight Savings Time (DST). It was my wife that helped me see that a few things about DST make absolutely no sense:
1) DST is essentially the practice of setting our clocks back one hour in the fall and setting them forward one hour in the spring. The original rationale for doing this was that there would be more hours of daylight for outdoor leisure activities and that businesses (especially agriculture) would benefit because consumers/workers are out more during the day. I wonder if anyone considered the possibility of simply waking up an hour earlier or later? Rather than suggesting that people simply set their clock differently, people actually thought it made sense to coordinate an international campaign to officially change time twice a year? Every year?? Here's a thought: maybe every person could also pick their own time zone. That would probably be easier than doing it geographically.
2) Arizona and Hawaii do not participate in DST. Really? 48 states, almost all of Europe, and countries on every other continent take part in DST. For some reason, Arizona and Hawaii thought they would make the otherwise-simple process of shifting time twice a year, a little more complicated. If you travel to Arizona throughout the year, not only do you have to remember whether it is one or two hours behind Chicago, but it also depends on what month you travel because sometimes they are the same time as Chicago because they opt out of DST. Great system. Maybe you guys in AZ could start your alphabet with the letter N instead of A for six months of the year? Assholes.
3) According to Wikipedia, the prominent English builder and outdoorsman William Willett conceived DST in 1905 during a pre-breakfast ride, when he observed with dismay how many Londoners slept through a large part of a summer day. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk. His solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. He lobbied unsuccessfully for the proposal until his death in 1915. He actually lobbied for this?? I wonder how many hours he spent lobbying for a one hour shift in time. Am I the only one who thinks this guy was a complete idiot?
1) DST is essentially the practice of setting our clocks back one hour in the fall and setting them forward one hour in the spring. The original rationale for doing this was that there would be more hours of daylight for outdoor leisure activities and that businesses (especially agriculture) would benefit because consumers/workers are out more during the day. I wonder if anyone considered the possibility of simply waking up an hour earlier or later? Rather than suggesting that people simply set their clock differently, people actually thought it made sense to coordinate an international campaign to officially change time twice a year? Every year?? Here's a thought: maybe every person could also pick their own time zone. That would probably be easier than doing it geographically.
2) Arizona and Hawaii do not participate in DST. Really? 48 states, almost all of Europe, and countries on every other continent take part in DST. For some reason, Arizona and Hawaii thought they would make the otherwise-simple process of shifting time twice a year, a little more complicated. If you travel to Arizona throughout the year, not only do you have to remember whether it is one or two hours behind Chicago, but it also depends on what month you travel because sometimes they are the same time as Chicago because they opt out of DST. Great system. Maybe you guys in AZ could start your alphabet with the letter N instead of A for six months of the year? Assholes.
3) According to Wikipedia, the prominent English builder and outdoorsman William Willett conceived DST in 1905 during a pre-breakfast ride, when he observed with dismay how many Londoners slept through a large part of a summer day. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk. His solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. He lobbied unsuccessfully for the proposal until his death in 1915. He actually lobbied for this?? I wonder how many hours he spent lobbying for a one hour shift in time. Am I the only one who thinks this guy was a complete idiot?
3 comments:
um...you're about a century late...
http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/c.html
Sorry to nitpick:
1. It's not called DST anymore after the clocks are set back an hour.
2. While I agree that AZ is weird for not changing (though who can blame them for not wanting MORE daylight hours in the summer), at no time are AZ and Chicago on the same time. They're either 1 or 2 hours apart.
3. Does Hawaii really need DST? They're hundreds of miles from anyone else, and it's sunny and 82 every day of the year.
I don't think that Indiana participates in DST either...
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