Spring forward, and stop whining
Five years have passed since I last defended my old friend daylight-saving (not “savings”) time. Today I present one of my all-time favorite stories about this semiannual twisting of timepiece stems. The following story was confirmed as true by darwinawards.com, a fun-loving bunch that claims to “commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it.” Behold the 1999 Darwin Awards Winner:
Israel’s leaders wanted to start daylight-saving time a week early in 1999 to accommodate pre-sunrise prayers. Palestinians resisted the change, and a great confusion swept over the land. On Sunday, Sept. 5, two car bombs exploded simultaneously in different cities, killing three terrorists. At first, it was dismissed as clumsy bomb-making, but a closer investigation revealed the terrorists had been confused about the time change. According to the Darwinians, “the cars were still en route when the explosives detonated, delivering the terrorists to their untimely demises.” I believe this is known among terrorists as the “Lethal D’oh!” and falls a bit short of the threshold for martyrdom.Through the years it has become clear to me that DST was invented for one simple reason: to accommodate chronic complainers who are running low on inventory. Twice annually we restock these status-quo worshippers with a new reason to grumble and wail.
One of the greatest concentration of these Hounds of Whinerville is in Arizona, the land of incessant contrarians. This is the only state in the continental United States that rejects DST. (Hawaii is the only other state.) The late radio commentator Paul Harvey — God rest his soul — was an Arizonan who championed the crusade against DST. Whether you love or hate DST, you really ought to go along with it just to avoid the hassle that noncompliance brings. For example, many people mistakenly believe that Arizona is on Pacific Daylight Time in the summer. But, technically, the state remains stuck on Mountain Standard Time, too stubborn to conform with 48 other states. Consequently, other Americans don’t know — and don’t care — if Arizona is in the Pacific or Mountain time zone. (Imagine the time travails of flying from Phoenix to LA to Honolulu.)
Dizzying time-zone rules
But there’s more confusion for the hapless desert dwellers. The Navajo Nation (the more enlightened Arizonans) observes daylight-saving time to conform with Utah and New Mexico, where the tribal lands also extend.
And there’s even more confusion. The Hopi Nation, surrounded by the Navajo reservation, follows the rest of Arizona and remains on standard time. This is why most Arizonans have tossed their clocks into closets and now ascertain time of day by staring at the sun.
http://www.columbian.com/news/2010/mar/14/spring-forward-and-stop-whining/
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