March 2018

Why do we have Daylight Saving Time? Is it the farmers? FAKE NEWS!!!

March 10, 2018

Because I’ve been leading the charge against Daylight Saving Time clock-changing for years now, I sometimes lose track of the fact that misperceptions about the ridiculous practice still outweigh the truth.

I think if someone with a big budget took a poll, they’d find that a majority of people think we change the clocks twice per year because of “the farmers.”

If you stop and think about it, it’s ridiculous. Everything about agriculture has changed in the last 100 years, and somehow we still change clocks because of what farmers wanted in 1918?

Why do we think “The Farmers” wanted DST?

Simple. It was a PR job. One of the greatest PR con jobs in history.

You see, the guy who ran the biggest department store in Boston decided that people would shop more if they had more time in the daylight after work to shop.

He wasn’t wrong. A study done in this century is clear that more daylight does encourage people to get out of the home more and shop.

But in those days he couldn’t come out and say that he wanted to change the clocks to make more money for himself, so he came up with a plan: Say “the farmers” want it.

It was brilliant! Everyone had a nostalgic love of the farmers just at the start of the trend of people migrating off the farms and into the cities.

So, Lincoln Filene (who’s namesake store exists to this day as Filene’s Basement) had a bunch of what can only be described as Fake News created. His team wrote that fruit was healthier when harvested with the dew still on it.

The reality was that it sucked for farmers. In those days dairy farmers milked cows and delivered the fresh milk to stores and homes at the start of the day. This meant they had to get up even earlier relative to the sun.

The Filene team even ran the equivalent in those days of a social media campaign, creating post cards that constituents could send in to Congress.

While that PR effort did help, it wasn’t until WW1 that we actually started observing Daylight Saving Time, then called, “War Time” as a way of staying in synch with the British, who started doing it because the Germans did it.

So as John Oliver correctly points out: You lost an hour of sleep because of Kaiser Wilhelm.

The tide is turning, though. The news from Florida is excellent. There are at least 20 state legislatures grappling with the issue.

So this will get fixed, but not this year, unfortunately.

For Monday, however, be sure to recognize National Turn Off Your Alarm Clock Day.

Yes, it’s a thing. Go into work late on Monday. The life you save may be your own.

Historic day for ending Daylight Saving Time?

March 7, 2018

The time is always right to do the right thing.

I didn’t say that, Martin Luther King did. And someone else made it a meme:

I’m not as quotable, but I’d like to add a similar thought:

There’s always enough time
to do the right thing.

Not as catchy, but important, I think.

Here’s why:

The Florida legislature just passed a bill that takes a HUGE step forward in ending the 100-year-old practice of Daylight Saving Time.

While legislators have been trying for years to pass something, all of them have failed, until now. That’s why this is so huge.

Now what they passed is interesting, because it doesn’t fix the problem directly. Leave it to a woman — or two women in this case — to come up with the smart solution.

What the bill says is that if the U.S. Congress ever fixes the national law, at that point Florida would like to go to permanent Daylight Saving Time.

It’s brilliant. What these two women — Jeanette Nunez and Heather Fitzenhagen — came up with is a way to give their fellow legislators a chance to vote for something that doesn’t come with a high political risk.

They should get lots of credit, and I hope they do. So far it seems like more of the media attention has gone to Greg Steube, who had a bill with a cool title, “The Sunshine Protection Act.” But it’s the language from Nunez and Fitzenhagen that won the day.

Not the most important thing for the Florida Legislature

Ever since I started this movement, I’ve seen the internet trolls complaining: Is this really the most important thing our lawmakers should be doing?

Of course it’s not.

Especially in Florida. My view is that the legislature really needs to listen to the kids from Parkland, and do what they say. History will not look kindly on those who oppose what these kids are working for. Join them, or join those who will go down in the history books as opposing progress.

But there’s plenty of hours in the day. Legislators can vote to keep kids safe, and then vote to fix the clocks, and still be home in time to head to a beachside bar and watch the sun set.

There’s always enough time to do the right thing.

How historic is this vote?

It’s hard to say exactly how historic this is. Only after Daylight Saving Time clock-changing has been consigned to the dustbin of history will we be able to look back and know what the key moments were in the efforts to fix it.

I’d like to think that when this blog started, that was a key moment. Or the first time a state adopted language that I proposed.

But the reality is that there are a thousand things that will have helped. Every meme. Every funny video. I’ve tried to capture that zeitgeist on this blog.

Maybe it was when I first appeared on CNN.com.

Maybe it was when I got the great hashtag #LockTheClock from Peter Lucido, who worked very hard to get the law changed in Michigan. He hasn’t succeeded yet, but maybe with this Florida language he can make some more progress.

Maybe it was when Ro Khanna got elected to the U.S. Congress. He seems to be the only one talking about fixing the federal law that’s in a position to do so. People are a bit… distracted… right now in DC, so I understand why it’s not moving along quickly. I’ve even written that now is not the time to push it forward just because of all the current disfunction.

In short, we may never know exactly what the tipping point was.

But we do know that this is a very good day.

Congratulations to all those who got this passed in Florida. I’ll now work hard to see that every other state passes a bill that looks a lot like this, and then we can pass the baton to Rep. Khanna and hopefully some others in Washington, and the deadly and disruptive time changing will be a thing of the past.

Update:

Great piece of reporting and writing from Kim Miller at the Palm Beach Post.

Daylight Saving Time and pop culture

March 6, 2018

A couple of years back, I published what I thought was a pretty complete guide to all of the videos and memes about Daylight Saving Time.

Well, the creators of the world keep creating.

But it’s not just kids goofing around with meme-makers. Questions about DST are creeping into all parts of our culture, including this gem from the Cartoon Network:

If kids grow up knowing from cartoons that changing the clocks around is a “completely pointless practice” then I know that it’s just a matter of time before we fix it, sort of like gay marriage and gun laws.

But for this year, we are stuck with it. (Blame Trump, really.)

Well, be sure to check out that original collection, but here are some new additions that are worthy of a look or a share here in the 100th year of DST in the United States. Enjoy!