This weekend we begin the exercise of time gyration called Daylight Saving. By the way don’t call it Daylight Savings. That’s wrong grammatically.

Since we already had National Grammar Day (Wednesday March 4), here’s a perfect time to set the record straight. Don’t worry about the Grammar Police writing you a ticket. The wrong way is so commonly used, even dictionaries add the ‘s’.

The website webexhibits.org provides the explanation:

Saving is used here as a verbal adjective (a participle). It modifies time and tells us more about its nature; namely, that it is characterized by the activity of saving daylight. It is a saving daylight kind of time. Because of this, it would be more accurate to refer to DST as daylight-saving time. Similar examples would be a mind-expanding book or a man-eating tiger. Saving is used in the same way as saving a (base)ball game, rather than as a savings account.

Originally, Ben Franklin floated the time shifting idea. The concept got widespread acceptance in Europe and token approval in America during World War I.

Why do people like it? Surveys have shown that people enjoy long summer evenings as the main reason. Others claim energy savings as a direct result.

Admittedly, I like the sun not rising so early during the summer. Bright light at 5:00 AM shining in the window is low on the list of personal preference. Losing an hour of sleep is a sufficient sacrifice. Maybe in the twilight years I can lead an effort to keep the time consistent with year-round daylight saving. Maybe the easier option would be to move closer to the equator because daytime and nighttime is split evenly with no need for shifting the time.

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