29 Oct 2005
Mainers Embrace Daylight Time Extension

I've discussed the advent of Daylight Savings Time here quite a bit in the past year, and I'm glad to report that we're not the only place with a time problem.

It's geography versus politics and economics: geographically, Maine needs to be on Atlantic Time, with no DST, year around, but network TV and a desire for economic coordination with the rest of New England have it stuck on Eastern Standard time, with a resulting early sunset.

We're in the reverse situation: when this change takes effect here, it won't get light until after folks have arrived at work and had their first coffee break! But, like like their collegues in Maine, Hoosier politicians have more important things to consider than simple geography: why, how can we keep jobs if we aren't on the same time as New York, all the time? Never mind that sleepy folks with their circadian rhythms seriously disturbed are less productive and more accident prone! The political solution is to disturb these biological rhythms twice a year, so that just as you begin to adapt to one time period, you get to switch to another!

Of course, the Feds have thrown a real ringer this week: they want to split up two adjacent counties in northern Indiana into different time zones. Which has Our Man Mitch in a tizzy, to say the least.

If jobs are the main concern, perhaps we should just switch to Bangalore time, since that's where a great many hi tech jobs seem to be heading. Alternately, we could pay a bit of attention to longitude and latitude and set our clocks to match the position of the sun ... what a concept!

AP - John Rossignol says: Let there be light. Who can blame him? The winter sun goes down earlier in the day in his northern Maine hometown of Van Buren than anywhere else in the continental United States.

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