Howdy Doody Time

Joel Achenbach on what the time change really means.

As you know, the best thing about the autumnal time change, when we fall back one hour, is that it becomes plausible to go to bed at 9:30 p.m. You don’t have to be embarrassed. You don’t have to stare at the clock and wish that it were later and that you could go to sleep without feeling like a complete zero. Because it’s really 10:30. Also you can eat lunch at 11 and have cocktails at 4. But the next morning, the time reverts to what it says on the clock, and you can stay in bed an extra hour. The extra hour has achieved a kind of duality: It’s there or not there depending upon your mood.

When I’m president, the clocks will move forward and backward by one hour at my whim. Sometimes two hours, or three.

There are more things he’ll change when he’s president.