John Oliver asks the question that is on all of our sleepy minds this week: “How is daylight saving time ‘still a thing?'” The second question on my mind, is ‘when did I get so many damned digital clocks, and how do I set them all forward?’
We remember when it’s time to gain or lose an hour, thanks to the simple slogan, “spring forward, fall back.” If you’re merely dragging forward , perhaps you’re wondering why we even bother to change our time twice a year- just as seventy other countries still do. I remember asking this question as a child, and learning that my mother was equally puzzled. She thought it might have something to do with energy consumption, and that is one theory. The other wide-spread blame rests on the farmers. It’s thought that they need an extra hour of sunshine each day. The fact is, they don’t punch a time clock, because cows and corn don’t give a flip whether your Timex says 5 or 6 o’clock AM.
Indiana got on board the daylight saving time train belatedly, in 2006. Because of their recent implementation, we’ve learned that DST does not save electricity, in fact energy use increased inexplicably. Add to that, our sleep-deprived country suffers more traffic accidents and work-related screw-ups due to the loss of one precious hour of sleep.
A top YouTube comment from tOfObO offered a whimsical explanation: ” If we don’t save the daylight, we’ll run out of it altogether, then you won’t be laughing.” True that. Personally, as a late riser, I like it when the clock springs forward, and I have a fighting chance to see some daylight.
We’ve destroyed both of the main reasons credited for DST, and John doesn’t leave us hanging…But I will.
You will have to watch the video to see why you have Kaiser Wilhelm, innovative Germans, and World War l to thank for our twice yearly time changes. That is one theory I had never heard. The Germans may have lost the war, but they won an everlasting battle. Twice a year they watch us all struggle – because we neglected to turn our clocks back to the way they were before the war, and leave them there!