This Dude Who Wants To Change Massachusetts' Time Zone Can Go Straight To Hell
Imagine crossing the border into New Hampshire and entering a different time zone. The same would be true in Rhode Island, Vermont, New York and Connecticut. A Quincy man wants to shift Massachusetts into Atlantic Time — the same as Nova Scotia — during the period of the year that is now Eastern Standard Time. The shift would put Massachusetts an hour ahead of its bordering states for about four months each year. It also means clocks would not be set ahead when Daylight Savings Time begins each year. Tom Emswiler, writing in the Boston Globe, said science supports his argument. “The idea of defecting from our time zone might seem strange. Yet the emerging science and the geographic reality of life in New England make it an idea worth serious consideration,” Emswiler wrote. Emswiler said Atlantic Time is one solution for the winter blahs with the sun now setting before people get out of work on the shortest days of the year. “Boston lies so far east in the Eastern Time Zone that during standard time, our earliest nightfall of the year is a mere 27 minutes later than in Anchorage,” a city known for its short winter days, Emswiler wrote. Emswiler persuaded his state senator, John Keenan, to sponsor a bill ordering a study of the idea. Legislators were hearing testimony on the bill Tuesday in Holyoke.
I actually read this article (a shockingly rare thing for me) and I see the benefits. It’s depressingly dark during the winter here. You can leave the office and think it’s midnight. An extra hour of sunlight would be pretty nice. But, I’m sorry, I can’t deal with changing time zones every time I leave the state. I still haven’t even changed my watch back from like two weeks ago, or whenever that was. What if I go skiing in Vermont? To the beach in Rhode Island? A dinner in New York? I’ve got to factor in time changes for all of that? Hell no. What about work? What time am I staying in the office until since it’s not 1908 and no one works on a local level anymore? My mind is in a labyrinth just thinking about all the ways this might affect my life and we haven’t even gotten to doing my own math when they announce what time a show is on in eastern standard time. Fuck all of it. Given the choice between winter depression for the rest of my life or some added math, I’m choosing the sads every time. In fact I’ve kinda come to enjoy that. A medical explanation for the desire to stay inside, watch TV, drink beer, and not talk to people? It’s fine by me.
h/t John