BEN FRANKLIN AND ME

Ben Franklin and I have something in common – we like to sleep late in the morning. [I won't even count the fact that his picture is on the 100 dollar bill and I LIKE one hundred dollar bills!] That's why I don't mind the “fall back” feature of daylight savings time. I only have three clocks to reset: the bedroom alarm clock, the microwave clock, and the bathroom clock. My cable box and computer reset automatically.

According to the Congressional Research Service Library, daylight savings time was the brainchild of Benjamin Franklin around 1784.

I read a few articles about DST today, and one said it was a scientific fact that night owls are smarter. That sure made me feel good, because my dad always said I was smart. I have a friend that is also a night owl and I know she's smart! Since I retired from working, I love to sleep in until about 10 am, because I am usually up very late at night.

Congress decided to establish time zones for the country in 1918 and passed the Standard Time Act. It originally started to save fuel/coal costs during the war.

After the two world wars, areas of the country varied, so Congress passed The Uniform Time Act of 1966, which focused on DST. Ben Franklin would have approved!

Congress kept tinkering with the effective dates of DST until The Energy Policy Act of 2005 making March and November the norm. There are only two states that do not participate in DST, Hawaii and Arizona – plus a small portion of Indiana.

Some farmers around the country oppose DST, and a group who formed StandardTime.com came up with an alternate plan of having only two time zones with two hours apart, instead of the current four time zones with one hour apart. The group states that some studies have found that it doesn't actually save energy anymore.

Their rationale is that the sun rises on the east side of each time zone and on the western side about one hour later. This plan would drastically throw off sunrise and sunset times across the country. The article I read about this on Yahoo said this plan was just dumb and wouldn't solve anything, because it would make it harder to start the workday on an even keel.

One of their complaints was that it increases gasoline consumption. Well, DUH, yeah, because people are able to go out after work for social activities, ballgames, picnics, and various other outdoor activities, and spend money, which puts billions into the economy.

I'm all FOR daylight savings time, because I love my evening summers outdoors. I don't even mind the “spring ahead” in March, because I'm a night owl anyway and I just sleep in a little extra!