Don’t Forget…Even Though You’d Probably Like To

Last Updated on February 17, 2022

There are a few days of the year that I genuinely dread, and this particular day — more specifically, this evening — is one of them. There are two primary reasons, one of which is the bickering and inconsistency I’ll see coming out of newsrooms across the country.

It’s daylight saving time. Not savings.

Get over it. Just drop the s.

Benjamin Franklin proposed Daylight-Savings Time as a way to save candles. But today, the Associated Press Style Book and other authorities confirm that the proper usage is Daylight Saving Time. Garner’s Modern American Usage, I am reliably informed, instructs its readers to place a hyphen between daylight and saving.

But there’s no ending s to be found.

No two people in the newsroom are likely to agree on this, which is why we have things like the Associated Press Style Book.  Even if you don’t agree with its rules, it at least gives us consistency.  If you’re willing to go off on your own, against its judgment, this should at least be mentioned to the entire news staff.  Rarely, in my experience, does this happen.

A little consistency goes a long way.

With that grammar “crisis” out of the way, that brings me to the other reason, the bigger one, that I dread this day: the fact that before we go to bed, we must “Spring Forward,” by adjusting our clocks forward one hour.

The result of this, of course, is that we lose an hour of sleep during the night.

It may leave me somewhat irritable on Sunday morning. Perhaps someone could bring me a nice latte?

Just sayin’.