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Fall Back

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Today’s post is a Questionable News Dispatch from disgraced journalist Bud Buck.

Trying Not To Turn Back Time
Trying Not To Turn Back Time

Tea Party conservatives have mounted a last-minute filibuster to delay the return to standard time this weekend. Assuming a now-familiar position in the well of the Senate, Republican Ted Cruz said “I take the floor to speak until next Spring, if necessary, to keep the nation from making the grave mistake of turning its back on anything with ‘savings’ in the title.”

In the House, Speaker John Boehner has acquiesced to demands from the most conservative members of his caucus that clocks at the Capitol remain untouched throughout this weekend and until further notice because “… nothing about the United States is ‘standard’.” Sources inside the Republican caucus say the Tea Party contingent rejected a compromise offer from Boehner to change the name of the four month interlude between the end and beginning of Daylight Savings Time from the traditional “Standard Time” to “Exceptional Time”.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tentatively endorsed the effort, pending the discovery of a way to link the time change to Obamacare.

But as usual, not all Republicans were on board with the tactic. Arizona Senator John McCain called the strategy “asinine”, and said “Nobody needs an extra hour of sleep more than I do.”

How will you spend your extra hour this weekend?

63 thoughts on “Fall Back”

  1. Considering that the Tea Party seems hell bent on returning us to the good old days, you’d think that they’d welcome the one hour fall back, but perhaps they’d like the fall back in bigger increments, say decades? Wouldn’t a return to the sixties be fun? What decade would you like to return to?

    How am I going to spend that extra hour? November is “National Novel Writing Month,” and I have signed up to write a 50,000 word novel, so I might want to get cracking on that. I just hope inspiration of some sort strikes by Sunday. Wanna join me? Sign up on their website.

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      2. Don’t know about you, Anna, but I have absolutely NO idea what I’m going to write about. And 50,000 words is an awful lot of words, heck, who am I kidding, even 25,000 is a lot. But I thought it would be a fun exercise so I intend to enjoy it. Good luck, Anna.

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        1. Yeah, even if I don’t get to 50K words, I’m hoping it will jump start a regular writing practice. We shall have to compare notes as we go – have a blast PJ!

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        2. go for it baboons. i love the idea. i will think about it but. i have so much ewlse to do this month. maybe if i put an x on my calendar for 11/14 i can consider it.
          dale get to it. in your spare time

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      3. I think I signed up for a goofy variation on NaNoWriMo where an unlimited number of people will write a novel together. Each person can write as little as one sentence or as much as 800 words. Should be pretty chaotic.
        I haven’t heard any more about it so maybe I just gave my email address to a spammer of some sort.

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    2. Given that you’ve just informed me that there IS an extra hour coming up (I still don’t know whether it’s on Saturday night or Sunday night!), I guess it’ll only adjust my late-night cable viewing. I have such ample time in general that having an extra hour won’t make any difference. I agree with you, PJ, that these regressives would turn back time to the 19th.
      century if they could. The Democrats symbol – the elephant – is under relentless attack by an army of ants.

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  2. OT – I’m off to the tpt sponsored One Day University at the Mpls. Convention Center. Probably won’t get back to the trail until tomorrow. Have a great day baboons everywhere.

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    1. Obviously I’m back from the One Day University. Wonderful day. I attended four very good lectures. Highly recommend it. There will be another one on April 26th, I’ve already signed up.

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  3. Good morning. I think the Republicans, especially those in the Tea Party, had better not get involved in any action that relates to falling back because they have already done too much falling back. Well, if they do fall to an even lower level by making proposals related to the return to standard time that might be a good thing. That might leave them in a more unfavorable position for trying drag us down as they attempt to promote their agenda.

    I already have more than enough trouble related getting adequate sleep. I doubt that returning to standard time will give me any extra time. It will just be another factor that will foul up my efforts to get enough sleep.

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    1. well made it through the extra hour and spent it telling the dogs to go back to sleep. they didnt know the clock turned back . they thought it was time to get up.

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      1. I spent the extra hour laying in bed hoping I could get back to sleep which was a false hope. Unlike your dogs, tim, I did know that the clock was turned back. However, my internal clock, that always gets me up too early, was not turned back.

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  4. I plan to organize closets and freezers, sleep, wash floors, sleep, make some sweet rolls, sleep, read, sleep, you get the picture.

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        1. if stealing an hour and spreading it out over the whole weekend works i think i can do that every weekend. or have i already been doing that? i will have to look into this

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  5. I have every intention of squandering my hour in slumber. I have been suffering a sleep deficit of late and we know that Republicans don’t like to have a deficit. In order to balance my personal sleep budget a bit, I shall sacrifice the hour that others might use to Get Things Done to reduce my personal Slumber Deficit, thereby catching up with some neighbor or other who has no Slumber Deficit (since Republicans also seem so competitive about our neighbors – unless it’s about healthcare, then they aren’t). I’m sure the Physicians for Bedrest would approve.

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    1. I have been to that show several years – great art to be had. Added bonus: it’s only a few blocks from our house (at Daughter’s school – some days we can get a preview on Friday when they’re setting up).

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  7. Wow – an extra hour?!? I predict that I will spend that hour of 2:00AM to 1:00AM holding, rocking, and feeding at least one baby. Yawn.

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  8. On a typical Sunday I sit around in the morning lingering over breakfast and the Sunday paper, and then at some point look up and say, Good heavens, it’s 11 o’clock already – I better get moving and get something done today.

    On a Sunday when we have a time change, it’s earlier (by the clock) when I get up. Then I sit around lingering over breakfast and the Sunday paper, and at some point look up and say, Good heavens, it’s 11 o’clock already – I better get moving and get something done today. In theory, there’s an extra hour in there, but in practice, I swear there isn’t.

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  9. Ooh, I meant to post this too. (Our) Robin is also participating at a sale today… she and her daughter are selling, among other creative things, these little dolls:
    D:\Documents and Settings\Mike Hassing\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5NO2NLAI\IMG_4485-WEB (1).gif

    “4 Angels Creations 2013 Holiday Boutique Nov 2 & 3, 10A – 3P

    A sweet mix of hand-crafted art & gifts to get you started on your Holiday shopping… intimate, easy-to-get-to, easy-to-park location at corner of 27th & Stinson in NE Mpls!

    2653 Stinson Blvd NE (the corner house) — Plenty of parking!

    Free beverages [italics mine]while you shop (coffee and wine!), meatballs and pastries available for purchase. Carpool – bring your friends!”

    Watch for the white tents in the yard. I just did half my Christmas shopping…

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  10. i woke up early and saw the topic for the day. i spent about an hour thinking about it and realized that an hour is not very long. its gone.

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  11. It is just too confusing. How are we gaining time? You take an hour off the clock by setting it back and you gain an hour?

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    1. Reminds me of the carton of an old Native American man saying: “Only a white man would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket and sew it to the bottom of a blanket and have a longer blanket.”

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  12. Hi,
    Well I stayed up way too late last night. And going out with a friend tonight so probably will stay up too late tonight too.

    And I have to get some stuff done tomorrow for an electrician coming Monday. So I need that extra hour on one end or the other.

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  13. i was thinking about how an hour used to make a difference and i would appreciate the extra chunk of life made available and party or produce or get something substantial done and could measure the difference.
    then i thought about a 100 dollar bill and how that was really a big deal once upon a time . i lost one in the 70s and i thought the world was going to end now it is enough to buy a tank of gas and a 1/2 a bag of food. what happened? if i had an extra 100 dollars it would go to an already established home and if i get an extra hour of sleep it will allow me to put it in an already established slot and whoosh life flies by.

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      1. I sold my old Datsun for $200 in the 70s. The buyer gave me two $100 bills. Never having seen one before, I rushed them off to the bank in case they were counterfeit (not sure how rushing to the bank would make any difference with that!)

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        1. Shortly before our 25th weddings anniversary, husband had sold an old wreck of a car for $250.00. He had asked a friend for suggestions of where to take me for an anniversary dinner, and she had suggested, the now defunct, D’Amico’s in Butler Square in Minneapolis. Husband is known to be tight with his money, so I was a little apprehensive as we were seated at our reserved table in this rather pricey restaurant. Our friend who had suggested the restaurant had called in advance an ordered a bottle of champagne for us, and unbeknownst to us, told the maitre d’ to treat us well, that husband was a renowned Danish artist. We had a lovely dinner, with lots of attention, and when husband was presented with the bill at the end of the evening he commented: “I’ve just paid for a meal what some people pay for a car.” He thought of himself as a big spender that night.

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        1. I just can’t watch my daughter waste away from lack of sleep (and she probably doesn’t eat enough either). The dad works long hours – often it is 10am to midnight five days a week – so it makes sense to me to do what i can to help her survive and having her and the babies stay here while dad works is a good way to do that. It just so happens that the night shift ends up being my time to help. Last night they slept well, but as I was trying to snooze on the couch next to the pack-n-play, I didn’t sleep that much as every little noise kept me awake. Finally stumbled upstairs to bed at 5:30 – no, it was actually 4:30 – see, I got an extra hour of sleep after all!

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      2. You are a blessing to the parents and those baby grandsons, Edith. I am still grateful – nine years on – that my mom was able to come and help with the Infant Daughter in those first weeks and months. On behalf of new moms & dads everywhere, thank you.

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