Last updated on 2016-03-12
Senator Betty Olson (R-28/Prairie City) faces a hard weekend. She must return home from her last round of using her legislative office to peddle guns and fear to face the awful burden of changing her clocks. She tried twice this year (SB 60, HB 1233) to ban Standard Time and spare herself and her suffering neighbors from springing forward and falling back (all while resisting teacher pay raises, Medicaid expansion, and other sensible public policy).
Now Senator Olson retires to Prairie City to face the dreaded button-pushing, hand-spinning spring forward to Daylight Saving Time that makes her and her neighbors so “darn sick.”
Fellow South Dakotans, if you’re traveling through Harding County this weekend, do Senator Olson a favor. Stop by the ranch (with your hands over your head first, so she doesn’t mistake you for a mountain lion) and offer to spring her clocks forward for her. Do it for all of her friends along Highway 79.
And if Senator Olson has any of those new-fangled clocks or watches that show the date, see if you can roll the year back to 1984 or 1956. Olson’s legislative agenda has indicated she’s darn sick of the 21st century as well.
I agree with Ms. Olson on this issue. It’s not about the act of having to change the clocks – it’s the fact that it is an outdated practice that doesn’t actually save any daylight. If you have kids – you can pretty much guarantee a week or two of hell trying to get their bodies adjusted to the time change. Yes, it is only an hour, but even statistics show that being tired can decrease productivity, concentration, and general well-being. Several studies also link DST to increased risk of heart attacks, road accidents, and sleep problems:
A Swedish study in 2008 found that the risk of having a heart attack increases in the first three days after switching to DST in the spring.
Similarly, the risk decreases after setting the time back to standard time in the fall.
Traffic accidents increase on the Monday following the start of DST. Tired drivers are the main reason.
I agree. Just set it and forget it.
The Blindman
“Traffic accidents increase on the Monday following the start of DST. Tired drivers are the main reason.”
How do traffic accidents increase for the rest of the time when rush hour commutes are now made in the dark because daylight savings time is not enacted?
I own a self setting clock….and I bought it ten years ago.
The technology is out there for you folks who can’t handle the set button. If the rest of the country went off of daylight savings time, sure but if I have to make a call to Iowa, Nebraska, or Minnesota and forget that they are on daylight savings time, I’m wasting my work time.
Proves there ain’t no god,otherwise we wouldn’t be saddled with modern tech and wingnuts at the same time. Besides,every 6 months is a good time to change batteries in smoke alarms,just at the PSA says.
Cory, your funny bone must have been itching when you wrote this. Olson’s ideas make little sense, but what probably does make sense is to put all of SD on standard time instead of half standard and half mountain time. Then springing forward would not be quite such a shock in western SD. Most of western SD is not mountains anyway and apparently Fort Pierre doesn’t need an extra hour every night to sate the sots in Pierre and Fort Pierre. Poor Betty could spend a few extra dollars on clocks that automatically set time via the US time signals. The various types digital and analog work and keep the time correct to the second. Betty would know the exact time to take her crazy pills. Being crazier than a pet coon is not natural even in western SD.
Yes, Betty is a kook. However, even a stopped clock….
That’s more often than a clock reset to Daylight Saving Time.
Oh, time is just a human construct, right?
Douglas, my sense of geography and astronomy says that if we unified the state, it would make more sense for us all to be on Mountain Time. In Central Time, solar noon happens much closer to 1 p.m. than to noon—that seems silly. High noon should be noon, right?
Traffic accidents actually go down following DST switch by 8-11% for pedestrians and 6-10% for vehicles depending on where you live.
Sorry by a clock that switches time for you, and yes I have kids so I know the adjustment it takes.
Sunrise in June with DST is 5:46 but without it is 4:46
Sunset in June with DST is 9:12 but without it would be 8:12.
Studies also prove that humans naturally awake with the sun, would you like your kids to be waking up with the sun in the middle of the summer? Would this evening events in the summer be great when its getting dark by 8? The only time I think most people would answer yes is the 4th of July but even then 9 isn’t that late.
I may have to start a fund for those who are intimidated by changing clocks and we can replace those old time pieces with self setting ones.
“Traffic accidents actually go down following DST switch by 8-11% for pedestrians and 6-10% for vehicles depending on where you live.”
I kind of figured that was the case. I just wanted to point out the stupidity of the original poster who seems to think accident increases on one day justifies making changes that increase accidents for the entirety of winter. Let’s lead the charge on getting rid of DST, but god forbid we follow states that allow prescription marijuana. Olson is right up there with Conzet….batshit crazy.
Maybe she is angling to have the state buy her a diamond encrusted,solar clock as befits her status in her own mind.
Since we’re talking about serious business here I’m reminded of Williams and Ree and their comedy act: “white people you’re not saving any daylight.” The tough problems this legislature is faced with is quite daunting. Sorry I gotta go start resetting my clocks.
@cah: “my sense of geography and astronomy says that if we unified the state, it would make more sense for us all to be on Mountain Time. In Central Time, solar noon happens much closer to 1 p.m. than to noon—that seems silly. High noon should be noon, right?”
That still wouldn’t solve your “high noon” conundrum. Solar noon is always local so while Aberdeen’s solar noon is 12:43 CST today, Sioux Fall’s (being further east) is 12:36 CST and Rapid City is 12:02 MST. Moving Eastern South Dakota into the Mountain Time Zone will solve nothing. In fact you’ll cause Sioux Falls (and Aberdeen to lesser extent) to have earlier sunsets and sunrises. Besides your position in a particular time zone, you have to take into account slight variations between the observable sun and the clock setting mean sun. Here’s a good calculator to play with in determining sunrises, sunsets and solar noon.
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/grad/solcalc/
Whenever I hear the Daylight Savings Time debate I’m reminded of the wise old Indian that said, “only a white man would cut off a foot at the bottom of the quilt and add it to the top to make it longer”
Roger, and every time you say that I laugh.
Thanks Troy.
The last time I used it here I was accused by some that said it was racist.
Oh, Don, you’re so particular.
Naturally, I recognize the value of time zones. Dividing the globe into 15-degree-wide slices that operate on a shared clock makes practical sense and keeps the trains and planes running on time. I’ve just always found it interesting that the Central Time Zone crept this far west. If we were running neat time zone lines based on the Prime Meridian, the western edge of the Central Time zone would follow a line from Roslyn to Utica. Since that line is only 36 miles west of Big Stone Lake and 42 miles west of the straight eastern border, it would have made more geographical sense to include all of South Dakota in the Mountain Time Zone, which ideally would span 97.5° W to 112.5° W. The latter boundary would run from Butte, Montana, through the west edge of greater Phoenix.
It was on the news that changing the clocks an hour caused heart attacks to increase by 25%. It is a fact it is bad for you. That young Ms. Olson couldn’t use that as an argument and instead just complained about the level of effort involved shows she is not one of the good legislatures. Mr. H will have better arguments.
I think time zones are absolutely archaic. Every day I am counting hours trying to set up or attend conference calls. THAT’s a pain.
We should just do business on GMT like astronauts. I think we’d all adjust pretty quickly.
“Mr. Price, your lane at Robbinsdale Entertainment Center will be ready at 02:15 GMT. Until then, feel free to wait in the lounge.”
“OK then, Mr. Price, the representative of the pharmasudical company will call your secretary at 22:00 GMT on Thursday. Yes, your Thursday.”
Hey, it does work!
It would be EVERYBODY’s Thursday — at the same time no more Date Line either.
Imagine all the people – living life at the same time… woo hoo, ooyoo…
The legislature improves one retirement or death at a time.
Can we get a serious candidate from District 29?
Oops! Sorry, Mark! I mixed up Olson’s district. She’s 28, not 29. (I have edited the reference at the top.) We do have some sanity in 28: Democrat Lesmeister is running for the reservation half, 28A. Now if we can just get some brave Democrat from Belle Fourche, Bison, or Lemmon to jump in. Remember, petitions are due Tuesday, March 29, at 5 p.m. Central Daylight Time.
I’m exhausted and my finger aches from having to set my clocks to
Daylight Savings Time.
I’ll have to rest up tomorrow.
Mr. Price, our day would be flipping from Wednesday to Thursday around dinner time, would it not? That would be fun.
“brave Democrat from Belle Fourche, Bison, or Lemmon ”
this sums up the problem:
1.) we had no brave democrat lawyer to run against jackley for AG in 2014.
2.) are there brave democrats in belle, bison or lemmon? perhaps not. we do have types like liz may or betty who will bully them.
we do have Civic Center sporting suites full of drunken Philip residents that get charged with reckless behavior (eventually), but are not charged or convicted by elected prosecutors, so instead are ineffectively prosecuted by appointed city lawyers. to parrot trump, there are no consequences for belligerent behavior.
There is little reward for the brave and usually if elected we quickly forget or don’t care enough to support them in those battles that can at times be life threatening.
Think State Treasurer Dick Butler left to hang out in the wind by not only his party but by all good folks of SD who should have recognized his solid effort to care for us and our properties.
Over the years, legislators have learned that some of their members idiosyncrasies and mental acumen are to be taken seriously when considering bills they sponsor and support. Olson hasn’t been anything close to an effective and responsible legislator since she was first elected to the House and I defy anyone to show us where she has made any worthwhile and beneficial contribution to either economics, social welfare, or our quality of life here in SD. During her first campaign, she noted that one of the reasons she was running was to “fix the idiots in Pierre.” While there may very well be bureaucrats and other elected officials that demonstrate diminished mental capacity from time to time, I don’t believe they deserve being called an idiot. The con-flab over daylight savings time is understandable, and truthfully, it would likely un-complicate lives if we were to hang our hat on just regular time or daylight savings time (one or the other makes no difference to most of us) but………. Olson’s bill was doomed from the beginning just because she introduced it. Had some legislator with credibility and sincerity introduced a similar measure, I’d have to guess it would have been more well received. Thankfully, much of South Dakota has learned how to deal with somebody that can’t speak without exaggeration and fictional story telling. Now Olson can go back to her hideaway in the bowels of Perkins County where she can more comfortably call people idiots and not have to think about why she couldn’t get anything done in the hallowed halls. Not to worry however, Elizabeth May is still there to fill her shoes with all sorts of consipiracy theories, factual inventions, hypothetical reality, and disillusionment. “The Common Core curriculum, does after all, kill Children in Elizabeth’s district.” Autopsy reports on the 10 O’Clock News.