19 November 2010

Daylight

Gather round, all, for a history lesson that might dramatically change your life.

(And no snorting about Wikipedia as my source, you encyclopedia snobs. Because statistically speaking, Wikipedia is about as accurate as Brittanica no matter how much Brittanica whines otherwise)




Do you like this picture? I thought it was quite nice, with the sun dappling the grass and the cute little boy. We took this picture at about 7:00AM last Saturday, because of course we were already up and it was already light out.

I hear you gasp. Light? At 7:00AM in November?! But should it be light?!

Of course it should be. Because of this crazy l'il thing called (pause for dramatic cough) DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME.




You see, my friends, we revert to Daylight Savings Time every summer in order to...um. Well, it's hard to say. At one point, it was supposedly to save on incandescent lighting...so maybe it's to save electricity? No, because it doesn't significantly alter our electricity consumption. For farming? No, farmers don't really like it either.




SO THEN WHY DO WE DO IT? I hear you crying (you are all very loud today, btw).




Well, friends, as near as I can figure it...



...the reason that we screw up everyone's sleep patterns twice a year...


...(including the cherub you see here, who used to be a fabulous sleeper, but now, no matter WHAT I do, has woken up at 5:15AM every day since Daylight Savings ended)...

...is because in 1865, some New Zealand entomologist wanted more time after work in the evening to collect insects.



So thank you, George Vernon Hudson. I hope those bugs were REALLY awesome.

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