What's the deal with Daylight Savings?

March 11, 2009 in Current Events,Grab Bag with 14 Comments

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Isn’t daylight savings time annoying? I know that when it happens later in the year, we “gain” an hour, but at the expense of “losing” an hour early in the year. It seems to me that we could be just fine without ever having it. If I give you a dollar, and then you give it back, we are right where we started. So why even do it?

Actually, the reason we do it goes all the way back to 1784 when Benjamin Franklin wrote an essay suggesting it. It initially started to benefit farmers, but has since taken on this reason:

The purpose of the shift is to transfer, in effect, an hour’s worth of daylight from the early morning hours of the day, when only milkmen and roosters are awake to appreciate it, and use it to push back sunset until one hour later in the day. This arrangement is claimed to cut electricity usage in the evening and help reduce traffic accidents.

That’s fine and all, but can’t we just all agree to stop it?

(source: Snopes.com)

14 Responses to “What's the deal with Daylight Savings?”

patrickwitherow March 11, 2009 at 10:05 am #

As long as the daylight is more during the evening.

Reply
adamriggins March 11, 2009 at 10:08 am #

yes, so we should leave it as/is and not go back.

Reply
Adam March 11, 2009 at 10:08 am #

yes, so we should leave it as/is and not go back.

Reply
Mackalicious March 11, 2009 at 10:20 am #

…and what's the deal with Ovaltine?!? The jar is round, the cup is round …they should call it Roundtine!

But to answer your question, I do find DST annoying. It's a totally gay thing to Spring forward, but the Fall back one is completely hetero.

Reply
adamriggins March 11, 2009 at 10:34 am #

Spriiiiiiiinnggg!

Yep, gay.

Reply
Adam March 11, 2009 at 10:34 am #

Spriiiiiiiinnggg! Yep, gay.

Reply
patrickwitherow March 11, 2009 at 1:05 pm #

As long as the daylight is more during the evening.

Reply
Adam March 11, 2009 at 1:08 pm #

yes, so we should leave it as/is and not go back.

Reply
Mackalicious March 11, 2009 at 1:20 pm #

…and what's the deal with Ovaltine?!? The jar is round, the cup is round …they should call it Roundtine!But to answer your question, I do find DST annoying. It's a totally gay thing to Spring forward, but the Fall back one is completely hetero.

Reply
Adam March 11, 2009 at 1:34 pm #

Spriiiiiiiinnggg! Yep, gay.

Reply
patrickwitherow March 11, 2009 at 5:05 pm #

As long as the daylight is more during the evening.

Reply
Adam March 11, 2009 at 5:08 pm #

yes, so we should leave it as/is and not go back.

Reply
Mackalicious March 11, 2009 at 5:20 pm #

…and what's the deal with Ovaltine?!? The jar is round, the cup is round …they should call it Roundtine!

But to answer your question, I do find DST annoying. It's a totally gay thing to Spring forward, but the Fall back one is completely hetero.

Reply
Adam March 11, 2009 at 5:34 pm #

Spriiiiiiiinnggg!

Yep, gay.

Reply