Are you ready?
Yes, folks, it’s time once again for those short days and looooong, cold nights. When Daylight Saving Time ends at 2 am Sunday, Nov. 6, we’ll be back to Standard Time.
Computer and cellphone clocks will adjust automatically, thanks to the kind gods of the Internet. But you’re on your own with cuckoo clocks, grandfather clocks, clock radios or any wind-up clocks and watches.
As the saying goes, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. No need to make a fuss — it won’t do any good. Just turn your clocks back one hour before you go to bed Saturday night on Nov. 5. Night owls are welcome to turn their clocks back to 1 am the second 2 am rolls around.
Don’t worry, if you forget, you’ll have all of Sunday to make things right — even if you work Sundays. This time of year, you likely won’t be late.
Blame it on Ben, or maybe not
Ever wonder who’s responsible for all this? We could blame Benjamin Franklin — he suggested Daylight Saving Time back in 1784 as a way to save candles. But even frugal Ben wasn’t the first — many ancient civilizations adjusted water clocks throughout the year.
In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson signed the time shift into law to help the war effort during the first World War. He called it ‘Fast Time,’ and it ended after the war.
Then President Franklin D. Roosevelt brought it back again in 1942 when World War II began. And ever since then we’ve suffered. Oh, there are plenty of excuses and reasons for keeping the ritual around. We leave it to you to investigate the matter.
Misery loves company, and the U.S. isn’t the only country to observe this tradition — so do 70 other countries. The farther they are from the equator, the more likely nations are to change their clocks. China, India and Japan are the only major industrialized nations that don’t spring forward and fall back.
What if there were no Daylight Saving Time?
There are some states that never got with the program — Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands come to mind. You know what, though? They don’t seem the worse for it.
Kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
