April 2009

Jim: Longer evenings earlier in spring

At the moment clocks sprang forward an hour in the wee of March 8, the earliest date ever for Daylight Savings Time, someone should have inserted an asterisk in the record book to give credit to Jim Benfield, the Takoma Park guy who, more than anyone else, sold Congress on the philosophy that earlier is better.

Back in the 1980’s, when DST did not take effect until spring was half over, in late April, Jim made a pest of himself on the Hill. It didn’t particularly matter that his principle belief was that people bought more breakfasts in the morning dark or that he was working at the time for fast-food chains. Jim, who died in 2002, was a lobbying legend, and he managed to get the date moved up three weeks to early April.

The forward momentum hasn’t slowed yet.