don't touch that dial

This is your public service announcement.

Twice a year (when I remember to do it), I post a warning about daylght saving time.  Not the political warning that it is simply a wrong-footed policy.  Even though that is true.

See the orange-colored countries on the map?  Those are the wise countries of the world that have foregone this switching time nonsense.  And that may be the last nice political comment you will hear from me about Red China.  Perhaps I should re-christen it -- Orange China.

But, back to our topic.

Here's the drill.  On Sunday (8 March), Mexico's two giant northern neighbors will start the clock-switching tango.  Some church goers will arrive just as their fellow congregants are leaving.  For those who forgo services, they will discover their social error when they arrive an hour late for work on Monday.

If you are in Mexico, ignore all of that.  The Mexican regulators have narrowed our exposure to this contagion.  I wish they had simply pulled all of Mexico out of daylight saving time instead of allowing only Sonora to opt out along with its sister state Arizona.

In Mexico, the dreaded day will not come until 5 April.  But it will arrive.

And in a few months, we all go through the whole gyration again to return to standard time -- 25 October in Mexico; 1 November up north.

One of these days, the owners of ovens, DVDs, and dashboard clocks, whose displays will not stop flashing "12:00" as the result of failed time changes, will rise up and take control of their lives.

Unless that happens by this Sunday morning up north or four weeks later in Mexico, you may want to pull out your owner manuals for your clocked items. 

At least, this is something that Bill Gates got correct.