Indiana zones in on time

Chicago Tribune ^ | February 28, 2005 | Tim Jones

[Land_of_Lincoln_John]

STATE LINE CITY, Ind ome say they're hooey, others `Hoosier exceptionalism,' but the state's different times zones could get clocked if a bill legislating uniformity succeeds. Business favors it; cows might not.

To its everlasting credit, the state of Indiana has brought the world steel, prescription drugs, sweet corn, the Indy 500, RVs and Cole Porter.

But it still has not, after almost 190 years of statehood, figured out exactly what time it is.

That could soon change. And then, maybe it won't because this is, after all, Indiana.

The state's peculiar, long-running civil war over where to place the hands of the clock has erupted again in the state legislature, which triggered this great battle over time more than a half-century ago. Daylight Saving Time--for it or against it--is Indiana's magnificent obsession, resulting in regional duchies of fast-time obedience and Central time devotion clustered at edges of the largely Eastern time zone state and ongoing confusion over questions like this: When it's 8 a.m. in Chester, is it 8 a.m. in Chesterville? (Yes, except for the nearly seven months that it's 9 a.m. in Chesterville.)

Theoretically, this could all be tidied up in fairly short order if the state's elected representatives endorse a bill that says all 92 counties will change their clocks every April and October, just as every other state in the continental United States--save for Arizona--does every year.

[Semper Paratus]

Business favors it; cows might not

Unless the Indiana Legislature has figured out a way to make the day longer I suspect the cows won't know the difference.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

DST: An Indiana farmer once told me the extra hour of daylight would burn the corn...

[d-informed-1]

Indiana has been right for years. I hope they don't give up now. The rest of the country is backwards for using DST. It's a useless practice. I hope the Hoosiers stand fast until the rest of the country figures out what Indiana knew over 50 years ago!

[d-informed-1]

.....although now it is a hinderance to be out of sync with the rest of the country.

[hoosier_RW_conspirator]

Part of the state's identity is `Hoosier exceptionalism.' "If everyone else is doing something and it looks stupid to you, you shouldn't do it even though everyone else does it," Bill Blomquist, a political scientist at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, said in summarizing the state's antipathy to fooling around with clocks. "People here think we're the ones who got it right while everyone else is wrong," Blomquist said.

The dispute is tiresome to people like Morton Marcus, a professor emeritus of business at Indiana University who calls the debate "our trivial pursuit...If you can't be distinctive in the quality of your education, if you can't talk with pride about the environment, then you can certainly fall back on quaintness," Marcus said.

Well, there you go...two Hoosier academic lights put ongoing dispute down to our stubborn quaintness!

[discostu]

No Indiana is silly, because some of it uses DST and the rest doesn't, that's completely annoying and chaotic. AZ has it right, monkeying with the clock to chase daylight is silly.

[OldFriend]

This subject comes up on a regular basis and nothing ever changes.

[OldFriend]

Er ah, are you aware that the state operates on two different time zones?

[d-informed-1]

actually it operates on THREE. northwestern corner = central time & DST, southeastern corner = eastern time & DST, vast majority of state = Indiana time (eastern & no DST)

nice attempt at sarcasm, but know your facts lest YOU sound foolish.

[libbytarian]

I travel back and forth between Indiana and Ohio and now half of the year it takes me 3 hours to get to Indiana and 5 to go home; the other half it takes me 4 coming and going. I really enjoy the 3 hour trip as it gives me a good jump on the day in Indiana. I travel to two business locations one in Evansville (changes time zones) and one in Jasper (does not change zones)...a real royal pain in the butt! It is time to change.

libby

[Deaf Smith]

No one remembers J. Carter's screw-up in forcing the nation into double DST? Trying to add two hours of daylight into the day?

[Androcles]

It is inefficient being out of sync with their neighbours and in a perfectly laid out world everyone would be Daylight savings or non-daylight savings without exception.

That said, this isn't a perfect world and they have made their choice. Good for them. A little quirkyness never hurt anyone.

[Rodney King]

I'm totally against daylight savings time. the time is the time. If people want to wake up earlier or later its up to them. If schools want to start later, than let them. But don't go telling me that the time has to change. Besides, it means that the clock of my VCR is wrong for half of the year.

[JoeFromSidney]

When I was a student at Purdue in the 1950s summer classes were scheduled on DST, but every clock on campus was on Standard time (can't remember whether it was EST or CST). We managed.

[Land_of_Lincoln_John]

No one remembers J. Carter's screw-up in forcing the nation into double DST? Trying to add two hours of daylight into the day?

He didn't do that did he?? I would've remembered that!

But I remember Nixon doing year-round DST around 1973. Maybe it was Ford that did it in '74. I was in middle school then. I remember the schock of leaving for school in pitch dark. It lasted only one winter, but I'm sure voters remembered it in 1976.