From our current affairs editor, Lemuel Stuart III:
Spring forward, fall back? Isn't that the saying to help us with the re-setting of clocks at the start and end of Daylight Saving Time?
This time around -- as we set our clocks back one hour -- I'm visiting my mother's house, and we had about a dozen clocks to reset. Of course our digital devices changed times automatically, but we had to figure out how to reset the time on all of the other clocks around the house.
We had digital clocks in the bedrooms and guest rooms. We had a face clock in the kitchen. We had the clock on the microwave and the oven. We had clocks on a radio in the laundry room. We had to reset my mother's analog wrist watch.
None of the clocks could be reset in the same way - -and, of course, none of them could be reset easily. No, we had to figure out which buttons, switches, dials and knobs had to be pressed, pulled, flipped, clicked and/or turned in the precise (and enigmatic) combination.
After all the madness, I think we finally have all of the clocks reset. Except the microwave oven. It just keeps blinking "8:11." Maybe I'll just put some tape over that one.
Oh, wait a minute -- we also have to reset the clock in her car. Crap.
All of this silliness over one hour of time reminded me of Emmett Lee Dickinson's now-classic poem about Daylight Saving Time, "The Clock blinks one that just struck two" (below on the left). If I re-read the poem, perhaps it will inspire me to Google search how to change the clock on an old model of a Sharp Carousel microwave oven. Dickinson's poem did inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "The Clock strikes one that just struck two" (below on the right).
Spring forward, fall back? Isn't that the saying to help us with the re-setting of clocks at the start and end of Daylight Saving Time?
This time around -- as we set our clocks back one hour -- I'm visiting my mother's house, and we had about a dozen clocks to reset. Of course our digital devices changed times automatically, but we had to figure out how to reset the time on all of the other clocks around the house.
We had digital clocks in the bedrooms and guest rooms. We had a face clock in the kitchen. We had the clock on the microwave and the oven. We had clocks on a radio in the laundry room. We had to reset my mother's analog wrist watch.
None of the clocks could be reset in the same way - -and, of course, none of them could be reset easily. No, we had to figure out which buttons, switches, dials and knobs had to be pressed, pulled, flipped, clicked and/or turned in the precise (and enigmatic) combination.
After all the madness, I think we finally have all of the clocks reset. Except the microwave oven. It just keeps blinking "8:11." Maybe I'll just put some tape over that one.
Oh, wait a minute -- we also have to reset the clock in her car. Crap.
All of this silliness over one hour of time reminded me of Emmett Lee Dickinson's now-classic poem about Daylight Saving Time, "The Clock blinks one that just struck two" (below on the left). If I re-read the poem, perhaps it will inspire me to Google search how to change the clock on an old model of a Sharp Carousel microwave oven. Dickinson's poem did inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "The Clock strikes one that just struck two" (below on the right).
| By Emmett Lee Dickinson: The Clock blinks one that just struck two – Some schism in the Time – A Camouflage of Silliness To wreck the Paradigm – | By Emily Dickinson: The Clock strikes one that just struck two – Some schism in the Sum – A Vagabond for Genesis Has wrecked the Pendulum – |
How do all of our digital devices automatically reset at the start and end of Daylight Saving Time? It all happens flawlessly thanks to the workers at the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Time (NIST).
Below: Workers at NIST reset the U.S. civilian time and frequency standard to end Daylight Saving Time at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 5, 2017.
RSS Feed
