No big deal
Gerald Witten
Friday, April 27, 2007
ONCE AGAIN, I had to suffer through the tired tirade of trivia expounded by our local syndicated columnist as he berated daylight saving time.
I searched in vain for one coherent thought in the foggy morass of fuzzy thinking, confused conclusions and misplaced comparisons.
I instead searched for the nadir of the misleading message. Ignoring the nauseating blanket story which no longer involves an Indian, but a more politically correct old man, I chose the term God’s time.
The reference to God’s time is beyond comprehension.
As I taught school for 40 years, I had occasion to refer to items as part of nature or part of man’s thinking. The sun is part of nature; time is part of man’s thinking.
I am certain that with God’s time, noon occurs when the shadow is straight north (or south). If that is the case with our watches matching that sun, they would read four minutes different for every one degree of longitude with infinite different times in between.
That setting of watches would last just one day because the earth’s orbit is elliptical and not circular. From shadow straight north (or south) to straight north (or south) again is not 24 hours. It is more in January, less in July. That is why the figure 8 (analemma) is on the globe.
Again, perhaps in vain, I promote daylight saving time with the following question: We want to get a lot done tomorrow; shall we: (A) get up an hour early (B) get up an hour late (C) get up at the usual time. Perhaps an idiot, I choose A. See you down at the sundial at noon, whenever that is.