By: E&P Staff The extra week or daylight savings time this fall caused havoc with computer clocks and other routines -- besides sparking general puzzlement. Why now?
In any case, many observers, and other parents, have said they are grateful today for an extra hour of daylight for Halloween and the little trick or treaters. But surely that has nothing to do with economic concerns?
Guess again, according to a New York Times item today by Jennifer 8 Lee. Here is an excerpt from the City Room blog at www.nytimes.com.
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City Room was convinced that the conspiracy theory that Halloween was a critical part of the Congressional debate to extend daylight saving time was one of those questionable Halloween myths, like razors in apples or pins in candy.
Not so. City Room should learn never to underestimate the weirdness of the city to our south. Turns out, senators were truly concerned about that extra hour of daylight and its impact on children?s pedestrian safety, going so far as to propose a Halloween Safety Act (various studies show that kids are significantly more likely to hit and killed on Halloween than any other day).
But it gets even stranger than that. The candy lobby also played a significant role in pushing Halloween into daylight saving time, believing that extra hour of trick-or-treating in daylight would spur more candy sales but arguing that it would decrease deaths, according to Michael Downing, the author of "Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time," an amusing book about the myths and realities behind daylight saving time.
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