It's Digital Nuisance Time

[Geee]

American Spectator:


Yesterday you forgot to set the alarm clock so you had to scramble to get to church. This morning when you got in the car you realized you hadn't re-set the clock. So, next weekend you'll pull out the owner's manual and once again figure out how to do it.

Welcome to Daylight Saving Time, a.k.a. Digital Nuisance Time. In this age when nearly everything is digital, millions of Americans (not to mention folks elsewhere) must remember to set all of their timepieces ahead. A few timepieces do it themselves. Most do not. And it costs businesses untold millions to do the same with office and operating equipment.

The phenomenon has been with us off and on since World War I, when it was thought that the reduced need for electricity in the evening would save fuel for the war effort. No one was able to prove that it did. Critics said that the real reason it was adopted was that President Woodrow Wilson wanted more time in the evening to play golf.

It came back full force in World War II, lasting year-round from 1942 to 1945. In the 1960s it was used according to local laws until Congress decided to make it uniform throughout the country. Congress has been tinkering with it ever since. In 2007 it extended DST to begin the second Sunday in March (yesterday) until the first Sunday in November. The underlying theory seems to be that if a little bit is good, a lot must be better.