Hoosiers gird for time-shift-induced societal meltdown

Our friends in Indiana are bracing for chaos this weekend. The Final Four? Piece of cake. No, the normally placid Hoosiers are faced with something more dire: daylight saving time. For the rest of us, this is a normal, once-a-year hassle that, at most, cuts out an hour of sleep and makes us late for brunch. For Indiana, this whole spring-forward, fall-back thing is terra incognita. The state somehow opted out of the whole DST thing 30 some years ago, choosing instead to just keep its clocks as they are, sometimes being in step with East Coast time and other times with Central. This year, most of Indiana’s counties will switch along with Eastern Time. This is not turning out to be a simple matter in the Heartland. A few rogue counties vowed not to comply, and the state is preparing for computer glitches. It’s Y2K part two, Indiana-style. What’s more, Indy bar owners complained they’ll lose out because Final Four visitors will have an hour less of hard-core early-morning booze time. Gov. Mitch Daniels stepped in and unilaterally allowed bars to operate in a parallel universe, where daylight saving time starts at 3 a.m. and doesn’t affect last call. Quite a place. Stay calm, Hoosiers, you’ll get through this.

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

March 31, 2006 in Morrissey | Permalink