Sunday, as I wandered through the house resetting clocks on walls, kitchen appliances, desktops, the nightstand, the shower, and elsewhere, I wondered how humankind burdened itself with a nuisance as idiotic as Daylight Savings Time.

I remember reading somewhere that in the 50s, the Russians forgot to set their clocks back one year and the oversight went uncorrected for several years because no one wanted to be first to speak up and it didn't make a hell of a lot of difference anyway. Unfortunately, I've read too many books and articles to remember where I read this, and it appears to be beyond even Google's reach to retrieve.

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In addition to my confusion about whether I'm supposed to fall forward or fall back, I don't grok time zones intuitively. Let's see, is New York three hours behind or three hours ahead? If the sun sets in the west, that means the earth is spinning away from it, so New York saw it set hours ago, and that means they are ahead.

It's easier, not to mention more reliable, to take a look at the World Clock. Here's my custom version.