From our current affairs editor, Lemuel Stuart III:
Happy Daylight Saving Time!
Or maybe not so happy? Losing an hour of sleep tends to make this the grouchiest day of the year for most people!
Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request) enjoyed the extra daylight, but he had other ideas on how to handle the change in time.
One of Dickinon's theories that I think is rather ingenious is as follows:
1. Fall back one hour in the fall.
2. Do NOT spring forward one hour in the spring.
3. Instead, on the first weekend in March, fall back twenty-three hours -- and add an extra Saturday.
4. This would make a three-day weekend -- with TWO Saturdays and one Sunday.
5. Eliminate March 31, and then bump the days accordingly on the two-Saturday weekend so that March will still end up with thirty-one days.
With the plan above, March will still have 31 days, we would gain a three-day weekend, and we'd get back on track with shifting the sunlight in the spring and summer.
Dickinson wrote many poems about Daylight Saving Time. One of his DST poems, "One hour has perished here," is below on the left. His poem inspired his third cousin Emily to pen her poem "Sweet hours have perished here," below on the right.
Happy Daylight Saving Time!
Or maybe not so happy? Losing an hour of sleep tends to make this the grouchiest day of the year for most people!
Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request) enjoyed the extra daylight, but he had other ideas on how to handle the change in time.
One of Dickinon's theories that I think is rather ingenious is as follows:
1. Fall back one hour in the fall.
2. Do NOT spring forward one hour in the spring.
3. Instead, on the first weekend in March, fall back twenty-three hours -- and add an extra Saturday.
4. This would make a three-day weekend -- with TWO Saturdays and one Sunday.
5. Eliminate March 31, and then bump the days accordingly on the two-Saturday weekend so that March will still end up with thirty-one days.
With the plan above, March will still have 31 days, we would gain a three-day weekend, and we'd get back on track with shifting the sunlight in the spring and summer.
Dickinson wrote many poems about Daylight Saving Time. One of his DST poems, "One hour has perished here," is below on the left. His poem inspired his third cousin Emily to pen her poem "Sweet hours have perished here," below on the right.
| By Emmett Lee Dickinson: One hour has perished here, This is a trimmed off night – Within its precincts clocks have sprung Now forward to the light. | By Emily Dickinson: Sweet hours have perished here, This is a timid room – Within it's precincts hopes have played Now fallow in the tomb. |
Below: The Dept. of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Time (NIST) in Washington, DC.
Have you ever wondered how all of the digital devices and appliances in your home advance one hour at 2:00 a.m. on the night Daylight Saving Time begins? Hundreds of certified NIST horologists work through the night at the start of Daylight Saving Time to reset every digital device in the United States.
Have you ever wondered how all of the digital devices and appliances in your home advance one hour at 2:00 a.m. on the night Daylight Saving Time begins? Hundreds of certified NIST horologists work through the night at the start of Daylight Saving Time to reset every digital device in the United States.
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