Daylight savings time is here, time to "spring forward". This probably isn't much of an issue for most people, but to those of us who work long weekends a lost hour is bitter. And who do we owe the blame? According to Sieze the Daylight, Benjamin Franklin is at fault. Good old Ben awoke one morning in Paris to what he thought was the morning candles entering his room. Much to his sleepy surprise it was just the morning sun. A light bulb (or should we say candle) went off in his head and he conjured up a plan save money on candles by adjusting the clocks to save the precious daylight.
Is this true? No. The real culprit was a Brit named William Willet who put together the pamphlet The Waste of Daylight, a document that proposed changing time as a measure to increase daylight recreation and reduce the cost of lighting. His proposal eventually made it to Parliament, more than once in fact, but failed the vote. Finally, in 1916 during World War I, Daylight Savings Time was put into action to conserve coal, unfortunately one year too late for poor the William Willet (1857-1915).
As much as I dislike losing any sleep in my 80+ hour work week, the restaurant does spend a couple thousand dollars a year on candles..."A penny saved is a penny earned."
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