HASSO HERING

A perspective from Oregon’s mid-Willamette Valley

Time change: The glorious upside

Written March 10th, 2018 by Hasso Hering

Mendel the Wonder Dog could not care less what the clocks say, a good attitude to have.

Another time change. Nothing we can do about it, so we might as well do our best to ignore the hassle and look for the bright side instead.

The downside of the start of daylight saving time today (Sunday) is that everything on a schedule starts an hour before it otherwise would. The obvious upside is that scheduled events also conclude, and from now until Sunday, Nov. 4, when daylight saving ends this year, every scheduled event will get over and done with an hour earlier.

That’s no small thing, you know. If you spend any time in public meetings, you learn to appreciate when they adjourn.

The same goes, I assume, for those dreaded parts of the day in school. It’s been a while since I’ve had any experience along that line, but I vaguely remember that the speedy conclusion of lectures in certain subjects was devoutly to be wished. So now, starting Monday, those mental torture sessions start an hour early. But happily they last no longer than before, because they end an hour early too.

According to a story on CNN, most Americans don’t mind daylight saving time. It doesn’t bother them. It’s no big deal. So there’s no reasonable hope we’ll ever see this foolish national exercise end. (Hawaii and Arizona don’t take part, and in Florida the legislature is considering bowing out. But congressional action to end daylight saving time? Forget it.)

So let’s get it over with — the resetting of our few remaining mechanical or digital clocks that are not controlled by some invisible hand from far away. Or don’t reset them if you don’t want to. Let them be an hour late. Just remember that an hour late they are. (hh)

This has been edited to fix the error in the date pointed out by the commenters below. (hh)


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8 responses to “Time change: The glorious upside”

  1. James Engel says:

    Hummm… What would ‘Lil Kim in N. Korea do? Maybe Trump can get his take on it once their meeting starts.

  2. Martha says:

    I think you mean Nov 4 Hasso

  3. Tim Hanson says:

    Correction…Daylight savings time ends November 4th, 2018.

  4. Richard Vannice says:

    CNN says “most people don’t care” about the shuffle of time. If this is true why do polls run by different TV stations show 80+% of those who respond NOT like it.
    Hooray for Florida!!!! At least their legislature had the guts to say they are going to stay on DST.
    NO MORE MESSING WITH THE CLOCK.
    One person that was interviewed on the news said, ” I think it is a good idea since the sun will be up an hour longer.” Don’t think so – the sun is only up a certain time every day. Moving the clock doesn’t change the natural movement of the sun.

    • centrist says:

      Tomayto, tomahto
      TV polls tend to bring in a biased result.
      You’re right about the natural movement of the sun. What changes is availability for its use by fiddling with the clock.
      BTW, standard came about to keep railroad trains from crashing into rach other

  5. hj.anony1 says:

    Oregon sunshine always helps! We are going to need it tomorrow.

    The Monday following is always more difficult. Forecast looks promising.

  6. HowlingCicada says:

    Florida needs year-round Night Saving Time like Arizona and Hawaii have. Instead it might get year-round Daylight Saving Time. Another reason why some people think of it as the Crazy State.

 

 
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