Freeport, Ill. —
Daylight does not need saving.
Daylight-saving time is not an unnecessary evil anymore. It’s unnecessary and evil.
Controlling daylight because you want to have more (in a British accent) leisure time. Come on. Modern civilization is such a control freak.
Either way, the dark hasn’t stopped us yet. We invented light bulbs to stay up all hours, mechanical clocks to fight our biological clocks, third shifts to work all hours, 24-hour fast-food chains to eat out anytime, 24-hour grocery stores to finish our errands and digital video recorders to watch television programs at their un-televised time.
Who needs daylight-saving time when we do what we want, when we want, any time we want? I’m just saying. You can’t control us daylight-saving time. Now everyone with me shake the “old-man ‘you darn kids’ fist of rage” in the air!
Forgive me for not knowing, but who benefits from daylight-saving time? I ask people and I hear crickets. I’m not a morning person, so I should be glad to have an added hour of daylight to the afternoon. Yet, I should be more glad if I could continue sleeping the measly one hour. Is it worth it to reschedule sleep, meetings, travel, church and television programming? Daylight-saving time is even life threatening if you aren’t careful with resetting medical devices or taking medication.
We can blame the whole daylight controversy on a man named George Vernon Hudson, a postal clerk, entomologist and astronomer. He’s the one who wanted more daylight in the afternoon to hunt bugs during his leisure time. Mr. Hudson is quite an interesting individual. A quick biography may be found at “Dictionary of the New Zealand Biography,” online.
Born in 1867 in England, Hudson was one of six children. His mother died when he was 2. While he had a nice home life, he had “bitter experiences at school,” bullied for his natural history interests. At 9, he began collecting insects. At 12, he started writing and illustrating a book of insects. He eventually moved to New Zealand where other family had moved.
In the 1880s he was working in shifts allowing him to collect insects to write about and illustrate. His first book was published in 1892. Now, here is where the daylight-saving time bit comes in. By 1895, he was just so delighted with having sunlight to collect bugs, he proposed the concept of daylight-saving time so that all of us could also benefit from wondrous sun-dappled afternoons. Then, an Englishman by by the name of William Willett was on the DST bandwagon and wrote a pamphlet called “The Waste of Daylight.” Joy of joys. Germany was the first to introduce DST. It wasn’t until 1918 that the U.S. government formally adopted DST. Inconsistently recognized between states congress adopted “The Uniform Time Act” in 1966, and here we are.
Controlling daylight because you want to have more (in a British accent) leisure time. Come on. Modern civilization is such a control freak.
Either way, the dark hasn’t stopped us yet. We invented light bulbs to stay up all hours, mechanical clocks to fight our biological clocks, third shifts to work all hours, 24-hour fast-food chains to eat out anytime, 24-hour grocery stores to finish our errands and digital video recorders to watch television programs at their un-televised time.
Who needs daylight-saving time when we do what we want, when we want, any time we want? I’m just saying. You can’t control us daylight-saving time. Now everyone with me shake the “old-man ‘you darn kids’ fist of rage” in the air!
Forgive me for not knowing, but who benefits from daylight-saving time? I ask people and I hear crickets. I’m not a morning person, so I should be glad to have an added hour of daylight to the afternoon. Yet, I should be more glad if I could continue sleeping the measly one hour. Is it worth it to reschedule sleep, meetings, travel, church and television programming? Daylight-saving time is even life threatening if you aren’t careful with resetting medical devices or taking medication.
We can blame the whole daylight controversy on a man named George Vernon Hudson, a postal clerk, entomologist and astronomer. He’s the one who wanted more daylight in the afternoon to hunt bugs during his leisure time. Mr. Hudson is quite an interesting individual. A quick biography may be found at “Dictionary of the New Zealand Biography,” online.
Born in 1867 in England, Hudson was one of six children. His mother died when he was 2. While he had a nice home life, he had “bitter experiences at school,” bullied for his natural history interests. At 9, he began collecting insects. At 12, he started writing and illustrating a book of insects. He eventually moved to New Zealand where other family had moved.
In the 1880s he was working in shifts allowing him to collect insects to write about and illustrate. His first book was published in 1892. Now, here is where the daylight-saving time bit comes in. By 1895, he was just so delighted with having sunlight to collect bugs, he proposed the concept of daylight-saving time so that all of us could also benefit from wondrous sun-dappled afternoons. Then, an Englishman by by the name of William Willett was on the DST bandwagon and wrote a pamphlet called “The Waste of Daylight.” Joy of joys. Germany was the first to introduce DST. It wasn’t until 1918 that the U.S. government formally adopted DST. Inconsistently recognized between states congress adopted “The Uniform Time Act” in 1966, and here we are.
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