Some commonly asked questions about daylight saving time.
Q: Do I have to?
A: No, not at all. Feel free to be an hour early for everything. But when you make a reservation at a restaurant for 7 and say, "By the way, I don't observe DST," they will suspect that you also want water without fluoride and will try to pay with "sovereign dollars" you printed at home.
Q: Oh, come on, really? When did we become sheep that set back the clocks because the government said we have to?
A: Have you ever seen a sheep attempt to set a clock? They lack the manual dexterity and give up quite quickly.
Q: What are the origins? I heard it was because schoolchildren had to go farm for the war, or something.
A: That makes no sense. It's not like farmers didn't get up at daybreak no matter what the clocks said; the roosters were cawing, the cows needed milking, the fence needed mending and the Back 40 needed plowing. (I like to sling the lingo to let the Greater Minnesota types know we city folk aren't out of touch.)
Daylight saving time was first proposed by Ben Franklin, who thought it would save on candles; some scholars say his presidential re-election bid was defeated because of dark money from Big Wax and the dreaded Wick Trust. It was first adopted by the Germans, because rising an hour early would give them the element of surprise when they invaded France.
