A Daunting Task

Spring forward, fall back. Welcome to my semi-annual bitch session. This is the weekend that you set your clocks back one hour. Sunday November 1 at 2:00 AM in the morning those that are currently under Daylight Savings Time go back to Standard time. You get a twenty-five hour day on Sunday.

The modern version of it was first proposed in 1895 by the New Zealand entomologist George Vernon Hudson, whose shift-work job gave him leisure time to collect insects, and made him aware of the value of after-hours daylight. In 1895 he presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society proposing a two-hour daylight-saving shift and after considerable interest was expressed in Christchurch, New Zealand he followed up in an 1898 paper. Many publications incorrectly credit the invention of it to the prominent English builder and outdoorsman William Willett who independently conceived it in 1905 during a pre-breakfast ride, when he observed with dismay how many Londoners slept through a large part of a summer day. Willett lobbied unsuccessfully for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915. Germany, its World War I allies, and their occupied zones were the first European nations to use Willett's invention, starting April 30, 1916, as a way to conserve coal during wartime. Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the next year; and the United States adopted it in 1918.

Adjusting the clock twice a year can benefit retailing, sports, and other activities. However it causes problems for farming, evening entertainment and other occupations. It can complicate timekeeping, disrupt meetings, travel, billing, recordkeeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, sleep patterns and medication schedules for the elderly or other people with diseases that require medication.

Changing clocks and DST rules have a direct economic cost, entailing extra work to support remote meetings, computer applications and the like. For example, a 2007 North American rule change cost an estimated $500 million to $1 billion. Although it has been argued that clock shifts correlate with decreased economic efficiency, and that in 2000 the daylight-saving effect implied an estimated one-day loss of $31 billion on U.S. stock exchanges, the estimated numbers depend on the methodology and the results have been disputed.

Just an interesting side note. Both Idaho Senators voted for the extension of DST based on the premise that during DST fast-food restaurants sell more fries made from Idaho potatoes.

I don't really know if Daylight Savings Time is beneficial or not. I do firmly believe, however, that changing the clocks back and forth is harmful to the elderly due to their medication schedules and sleep patterns. I also know that I hate it. If Daylight Savings Time is beneficial and the beginning and end all of all benefits far and wide then keep it all year long. If Daylight Savings Time is more harmful than beneficial than let's just keep Standard Time all year long. I come down on the side of leave the damn clocks alone. What side do you come down on?


TODAY'S TRIVIA

YESTERDAY'S ANSWER: Rebecca Ann Latimer Felton

I was born in 1952 so I am younger than some of the other choices for the who am I of the day. Still I was the first of my nationality to be appointed as special consultant in my genre to the The Library of Congress and the second of my nationality to receive a famous prize in that genre. I was born to the first man of my nationality to work as a chemist in the tire industry. My mom always shared her passion for reading with me. I graduated from Buchtel High School as a Presidential Scholar, making me one of the 100 top American high school graduates that year. Later, I graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. from Miami University in 1973 and received my MFA from the University of Iowa in 1977. In 1974 I held a Fulbright Scholarship from Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany. I taught creative writing at Arizona State from 1981-1989. I received a Pulitzer at age 34 and at age 40 was appointed to that important consulting position to the Library of Congress. As that consultant I concentrated on spreading the word about the benefits of literature. My most famous work is a collection of poems loosely based on the lives of my maternal grandparents. In 1994 I published a play which premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon in 1996. For "America's Millennium", the White House's 1999/2000 New Year's celebration, I contributed in a live reading at the Lincoln Memorial, accompanied by John Williams's music, a poem to Steven Spielberg's documentary The Unfinished Journey. My latest work was published in April of 2009. I received numerous literary and academic honors including 22 honorary doctorates, the 1996 National Humanities Medal, the 3rd Annual Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities, and most recently, the 2006 Commonwealth Award of Distinguished Service in Literature. I currently live with my German born write husband in Charlottesville and my daughter who was born in 1983. Who Am I?