To spring or not to spring? That is the question. Since we have just sproinged, we may hit the moot button on this bout of daylight saving time. Still, the practice of saving time by changing the clocks has been compared to making a blanket longer by cutting off some of the top and sewing it to the bottom. The first recorded attempt at DST was when Joshua was leading the Israelite Army against the Ammonites and they needed more daylight to get the job done. Joshua prayed to the Lord for the sun to stand still and it stood. This was not a repeatable event, however. The momentum of the water in the oceans, when the earth suddenly stopped turning, slopped up on the eastern shores of all the continents. In Canada, it went up the Saint Lawrence River, all the way to Montreal. Another attempt that was discarded caused the residents of the Salisbury Plain to change the stones at Stonehenge forward or backward an hour, twice a year. They still don't have DST fixed. You may reset clocks but sundials look funny when the sun reaches its highest point at 1 p.m. instead of at noon. And if you can no longer trust your sundial ... Let's go back to standard time and stay there. Your sundial and Stonehenge will thank you.
Carl Mathis,
Charlottetown