Anyone disturbed by the changes brought by the conclusion of Daylight Saving Time (it’s dark when I leave work, must buy one of those SAD lights, etc etc) should spare a thought for the Americans unaware that their government had shifted the date when the clocks go back forward by a week, jeopardising breakfast meetings across the country. The policy had the dual aims of limiting fatalities from road accidents on Halloween and loosening the Arab grip on American energy by cutting back on light use, so saving a reported 100,000 barrels a day.
It wasn’t just humans that had problems adjusting. One would have hoped that modern computers could cope with the unexpected time change – having weathered Y2K – but, so serious was the issue that two acronyms were deemed necessary to deal with it: Y2K7 and DST07. (Similar problems are forecast in 2038 and 2070, assuming the planet isn’t too hot to operate computers by then.)
Children on the ground were sceptical about the move, believing it would lessen the impact of their Halloween costumes – walking around in a fluorescent ghost sheet in the daytime does seem rather pointless, after all. And what about those glow in the dark fangs, and face paint? A total waste of money. Those Halloween costume shops will feel the pinch, that much is certain – votes the Republicans can ill afford to lose. It seems likely that many children will simply elect to go later, unless hit squads are dispatched to strictly enforce the government-approved ‘trick or treating hour’.
Restaurant cleaner Robby Ortez of Davenport, Iowa, had this piece of wisdom to add for the net generation:
“It’s a 24 hour society so people are doing stuff all the time so it’s not necessary.”
News hour, with Jerry Caesar 