Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Shedding Extra Light on Your Seasonal Demise

Daylight Saving Time has been with us for almost two weeks and I'm happy to report that you, dear reader, are not dead. That's not a clever metaphor because I'm neither that smart nor that literate. Oh, I might have been at one time. But:
  • 2,340 readings of "Go, Dog, Go!",
  • about 6,208 games of "Candyland" (most of which I lost -- a pox on you, Mr. Mint!), and
  • a few million viewings of "The Sonny Suite House of iWizard Montana"
have killed the few remaining brain cells the alcohol imbibed during my four years of "higher learning" had pickled and preserved for later use. 

There are good reasons why moving the clock an hour ahead makes me fear for your life. Unless, of course, you live in Hawaii. Residents in our tropical island state do not observe Daylight Saving Time. This is because federally mandated residency requirements for mai tai consumption, surfboard waxing and suntan-oil slathering makes it impossible to get a good grip on those tiny watch knobs. Frickin' socialist Democratic Congress! (Conversely, even though most of Arizona does not "spring forward" with the rest of us, I AM extremely concerned about those residents. You should be, too. Clearly, something is not right with people who willingly live in a desert without the express written consent of God via a burning bush.) 

To start with, I'm afraid you could have a massive coronary. This fear comes from doctors in Sweden who, during a break from their usual research into perfecting penis-enlargement pumps, analyzed the death rates of their fellow citizens. They found the incidence of heart attack is significantly higher in the first three days following the switch to Daylight Saving Time. Poor dead Swedes -- at least they made it long enough to enjoy a final Feast of St. Prinskorvblodpaltkroppkakor, which celebrates the end of winter with one last massive meal of pork-filling dumplings and blood sausage in a delicate triple-cheese sauce. 

Medical science also tells us that, according to a study of Australian death statistics from 1971 to 2001, men in the land of "shrimp on the barbie" (a phrase that never fails to make me think of little people tag-teaming a buxom plastic doll) kill themselves in droves during the first few weeks following the advancing of the clocks. Some will say this has to do with the time change messing with the body's circadian rhythms, thus adding stress to the body and mind. I, however, theorize that the real culprit here is bad Aussie pop music. How else to explain that the rate of self-inflicted deaths reached its zenith in 1988 right around the chart peak of Kyle Minogue's "The Loco-motion"? Further investigation into possible links to the pre-"Jessie's Girl" singles of Rick Springfield is now underway.

Wait, you say, there must be something good about Daylight Saving Time? Doesn't that extra hour of exposure to sun help combat seasonal affective disorder and let our bodies produce some vital vitamin D? Doesn't the added light at rush hour help prevent traffic accidents? Well, of course, it does! It also gives us all a greater chance of developing skin cancer. In scientific terminology, this is known as "a wash."

14 comments:

  1. Yeah, Daylight Savings Time is the reason why I'm still up reading blogs and eating chips and dip. Of course, I would still eat chips and dip even without DST, but I would be in bed an hour earlier - and that would be good, right?

    I think my husband would agree, but since he sleeps with a C-PAP machine to prevent our two cats from smothering him in his sleep, he has NO idea what time I come to bed.

    And sometimes I bring the chips with me.....

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  2. That reminds me, I have to set my clocks forward.

    ps - I say we all move to Hawaii...they seem to be onto something over there!

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  3. I f@#$ing hate "Go Dog Go!" I'd like to find the people responsible for it and kick them in the groin.

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  4. Okay...so is the glass HALF-FULL or what? lol!

    Where I live...which is in the Desert...close to Arizona climate...

    at around Daylights Savings time it gets like SPRING...and everyone gets SPRING FEVER really bad!

    Maybe feeling locked up inside at work drives people to madness and then death?

    Now you have me wondering...but I totally believe in your theory!

    Although...I can't BELIEVE you knocked on LOCOMOTION...I LOVED that song when it came out! :)

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  5. This is hilarious...and edifying! But perhaps the extra hour is leaving you with just a little bit too much time on your hands!

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  6. I knew there was a reason beyond the fact that I never can remember who to reset the car stereo clock as to why I wish my parents never moved us out of Hawaii.

    Also, as a Rick Springfield fan until I die, even I got rid of the early works. Good god, those were bad.

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  7. As I sit here laughing (well, actually a chortle) at your post, I realize it's really 12:00 pm not 1:00pm because we 'sprung ahead' , but it's really 1:00 because we 'fell back' ...I mean it's really 2:00 because we 'sprung ahead from falling back '...I mean it's really October because now I am so confused...I wish I lived in Arizona and where did that freckle come from on my middle finger that I never saw before??

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  8. With regards to Candyland.....
    Fuck you, Plumpy.

    On the other hand..a Dog Party would rock. I mean, did you See the size of that Cake. And there are dogs being shot out of a Cannon.
    Awesome.

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  9. An extra hour of daylight just gives me one more chance each day to get the darn puppy outside to pee!

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  10. Extra hour of day light gives me the false hope that they baby (daughter number 5) will sleep a bit later. But that hope is crushed when she automatically wakes up an hour early.

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  12. I knew there was a reason beyond the fact that I never can remember who to reset the car stereo clock as to why I wish my parents never moved us out of Hawaii.

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  13. I hate DST. Arizona, however, I love :) It isn't all desert you know.....

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  14. Man. i really can't stand daylight savings. In the fall and early winter, it makes it dark at 5:00pm where I live!

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