What time is it?

October 25, 2003 6:24 PM

What time is it? Tonight marks the transition in many parts of the US between daylight savings and non-daylight savings time. Don't forget to set your clocks back one hour!
posted by silusGROK (43 comments total)

this post is garbage and you know it.
posted by angry modem at 6:39 PM on October 25, 2003

Here in good old Portugal it was 01h38m an hour ago and, you know what, it's stillOh138m now! I call this suspicious. Have we become one of the many parts of the US overnight?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:39 PM on October 25, 2003

"hora de Inverno"
Winter hour--I like that.
(I hate that it'll be dark by 5pm tho.)
posted by amberglow at 6:43 PM on October 25, 2003

Bars and clubs here in Lisbon now close far too late - lunchtime next day - for it to make a difference, but I can remember, back in the dark days of fascism, when the loss of an hour of carousing led to fierce protests.

My sister, btw, is so reactionary she never adjusts her watch. She says there is only one time - the immutable Greenwich Mean One. When someone points out "But Diana, it's still six o'clock in the afternoon - why won't you do this work?" she primly points out "That's in new-fangled time. The real, sincere time is seven o'clock.

In this way Sincere Time has become a family joke. For instance, it's only nine at night but you're bushwhacked, incredibly tired after a hard day and don't want to go out. So you say: "Well, in sincere time, it's three in the morning for me."

Works every time.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:05 PM on October 25, 2003 [2 favorites]

In the U.S., there is no 6:00 in the afternoon. 6:00 is in the evening. Or in the morning. But never the afternoon.
posted by JanetLand at 7:10 PM on October 25, 2003

spring forward, fall back. been doing it for years.
posted by quonsar at 7:17 PM on October 25, 2003

We have long, late lunches, Janet - you know how it is. We only start saying "Good Afternoon" when it's well past 14h00m (instead of the official 12h00m).

That said, I've always envied the British/American evening and beautiful words like evensong. Though I never know at what hour it begins - or ends.

On the minus side, your "Good Night" is only said before going to bed, whereas we have a lot of fun with it. When we're actually retiring for the day, we say something like "Sweet dreams" or "Sleep well".
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:18 PM on October 25, 2003

ok fine! I'll set my clocks back! jesus.
posted by mcsweetie at 7:50 PM on October 25, 2003

It's a moderately warm night for late October, here on the West Coast of Canada, at least relative to the rest of Canada. What temperature is it where you are?
posted by The God Complex at 7:56 PM on October 25, 2003

For those of us who set are lives by cell phones, computers, and cable boxes, our devices will adjust the clock automatically.

Last Spring, I completely missed daylight savings time, didn't even think about it until Sunday evening when someone asked me if I adjusted my clocks. "Yeah, I guess so... nothing to adjust, really."
posted by benjh at 8:00 PM on October 25, 2003

One of my favorite nights of the year...after New Year's Eve, Christmas Eve, Thanksgiving, St. Swithen's Day, and a few others. Love that extra hour of sleep.
posted by Oriole Adams at 8:07 PM on October 25, 2003

None of you own watches, or are they tiny computers strapped to your wrists that you use to make complex calculations?
posted by The God Complex at 8:29 PM on October 25, 2003

world sunlight map
posted by crunchland at 8:33 PM on October 25, 2003

That said, I've always envied the British/American evening and beautiful words like evensong.

evensong...? in 2003...? i'd be tempted to beat the crap out of anyone using that word, it's just so unnecessarily prissy.

Every clock I own, except the one that wakes me, will set itself.

me too... i think. i wonder if my new dvd player will set itself...? in the olden days it was kind of fun running around and resetting all the house clocks. yes, easily amused.

None of you own watches

doh! goes to reset her main watch in advance...
posted by t r a c y at 8:33 PM on October 25, 2003

It's stuff like this that makes me glad to live in a place without DST.
posted by spazzm at 8:36 PM on October 25, 2003

Why would a DVD player have a clock?
posted by AstroGuy at 9:03 PM on October 25, 2003

Watch? Not anymore. Cell phone is permanently attached to me in some form at all times.

Love the "fall back" night...signals the *true* beginning of The Season (colder nights, shorter "days", holidays, etc).
posted by davidmsc at 9:19 PM on October 25, 2003

Why would a DVD player have a clock?

because it's also a vcr.
posted by t r a c y at 9:37 PM on October 25, 2003

"The last watch I eyed seriously was a self-setter and if I bought it would have set itself anyway."

I'm guessing that even though you didn't buy it it's setting itself anyway.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:38 PM on October 25, 2003

angry modem : I know no such thing.

My only regret is that I didn't do a good enough job highlighting the link's value beyond tonight.

Take a moment to actually click on it, and you'll find (in addition to a damn fine time applet) a wonderful collection of exhibits dedicated to time, including a lovely walk through time, as it's been reckoned through history.

I found it because I was checking to make sure that tonight really was the night I set my clocks back... and thought it would be a wonderful resource for my friends back at Metafilter.

You're not my friend, angry modem... so feel free to just move along.
posted by silusGROK at 9:39 PM on October 25, 2003

(MiguelCardoso : I love the word "eventide"... which is put to nice use in several of the songs I sing in church.)
posted by silusGROK at 9:41 PM on October 25, 2003

*Gasp* silus?! You go to church? And you sing!? Away! Your presence is defiling metafilter!
posted by Wingy at 9:58 PM on October 25, 2003

i worship regularly too. i eventide to get in the pantaloons of the pastor's daughter.
posted by quonsar at 10:23 PM on October 25, 2003

he had me flogged for a fortnight.
posted by quonsar at 10:24 PM on October 25, 2003

silusGrok: eventide is even more beautiful. Another lovely liturgical word is vespers from the Latin vespertina synaxis. In Portuguese at least, véspera means "eve".

P.S. Don't mind angry modem: he's an unsprightly septuagenarian who can't help dribbling on other users' threads. His most recent comment on my thread below was "felch." This apparently means:
"Definition 1: Sucking semen out of vagina or anus with a straw;
Definition 2: To suck your own cum out of your partner's ass (with or without a straw) and then give it back to them in a kiss. "

Can't get more charming than that, right?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 10:32 PM on October 25, 2003

I'm thinking this thread is dead, but I'm not sure. So I thought I would post, just to check. Were we talking about timezones?

Yay, it's almost 1am. Again.
posted by djspicerack at 10:46 PM on October 25, 2003

verbosity will get you everywhere.
posted by angry modem at 10:46 PM on October 25, 2003

Public Service Announcement: We're supposed to replace the batteries in smoke detectors this weekends too, if you have them. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming
posted by amberglow at 10:51 PM on October 25, 2003

Can't get more charming than that, right?

yes, it can.
posted by quonsar at 10:56 PM on October 25, 2003

Also, http://greenwichmeantime.com/ comes in handy for checking the time in the rest of the world.
posted by starscream at 10:59 PM on October 25, 2003

Wingy ... Can't leave now! I've been around here for ages as Metafilter's token Mormon.

Miguel ... Vespers really is a wonderful term. There's a Unitarian church up the road that holds a Jazz Vespers every Sunday evening.

Amberglow ... You're a kick. : )

To everyone else belly-aching about the link, having not even bothered to check it out ... it's a nice resource with some wonderful content. I'm just sorry that my FPP copy didn't do the link justice.
posted by silusGROK at 11:12 PM on October 25, 2003

I love living in Arizona. It's nice to never have to run frantically through the house changing clocks.
posted by Fantt at 11:45 PM on October 25, 2003

*slaps forhead*

that's why it's still 1am!
posted by muckster at 11:51 PM on October 25, 2003

Arvo.
posted by spazzm at 12:06 AM on October 26, 2003

For those of us who set are lives by cell phones, computers, and cable boxes, our devices will adjust the clock automatically.

For the first time (probably because I have recently switched to a "check time and adjust on your own" scheme) my beloved iMac reset itself... twice. As a consequence, I required a check of television, my Palm Pilot and a call to the time number to assure myself that it is 3 a.m. here on the east coast, and not 2. Which means that it's really 4. Or something like that.

In any case, I need to go to bed. It's late!
posted by Dreama at 1:09 AM on October 26, 2003

Not having to change times is the *only* thing I like about living in Indiana. I moved here in 7th grade so I really have no memory of this crazy time switching thing that you all have to deal with
posted by mabelcolby at 3:19 AM on October 26, 2003

Where's my candle?
posted by ginz at 5:44 AM on October 26, 2003

That little "spring forward, fall back" mnemonic doesn't work for this jumpy klutz, because too often, I fall forward or spring back. ;)
posted by notsnot at 7:00 AM on October 26, 2003

Is this daylight saving time something I would need a watch to know about? Because I don't wear a watch.
posted by majcher at 8:06 AM on October 26, 2003

Not only did my effin' cell phone *not* reset itself (and it's modern enough to have a colour screen, almost-C64-quality games and a somewhat snobbish disdain for any networks that aren't GSM/GPRS), I am probably going to need to Google the manual to find out *how* to reset it.

Technology.

silus: Jazz vespers, you say? Although I'm hardly a regular churchgoer, I once went to a wonderful jazz passion service. Hearing the band go from a tortured Ornette Coleman skronk during the Crucifixion, to a funky New Orleans second line strut for the Resurrection, was a hell--sorry, *heaven* of a thrill.
posted by arto at 8:21 AM on October 26, 2003

Falling back I can do. Springing forward is the problem.

And this house is full of damned time keeping equipment (I'm in the bedroom and I can see 10 from here) and they all have different times. By upto 2 hours. Odd. Still got up too early this morning though. Still, it's helping me recover froma flight back over the atlantic, so I don't mind.

I stopped wearing a watch about 2 years ago. As a result I've got an internal clock that actually works. Doesn't stop me carrying my cell with a clock on it though. ;)
posted by twine42 at 8:21 AM on October 26, 2003

Not being one to EVER rise early if I can help it, I really lose out on this one. I mean, shit, farming equipment is all GPS guided now anyway. I do work with a few people who are thrilled because now they'll have the necessary light to play a few holes of golf before coming into work. Sick, I tell you, very sick.
posted by scarabic at 9:57 AM on October 26, 2003

Daylight saving sucks when you don't have it, I know that much. I have never seen the point of having a time scale that gives us full daylight at 4am and dark at 7pm. Don't even get me started on the reasons why we don't have daylight savings here. Can you imagine what it is like living in a city where half of the city is on daylight savings time and the other half is not? I would love daylight saving, but apparently it fades the curtains and confuses the cows.
posted by dg at 3:22 PM on October 26, 2003