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Spring forward, fall back: Hey, why is it dark?
By Gina Spadafori
March 12, 2008
I don’t like the spring time re-adjustment. Well, that’s not true: I don’t like it in the morning, but I like the daylight in the evening. I’m an early riser — 5 a.m., pretty normally — and the time change means I’m getting up at 4 a.m., according to my body clock.
There ain’t enough coffee in the world to cope with that sort of thing.
But even as I struggle to adjust, the animals have no problem at all dealing with the concept that meals are served an hour earlier. On Sunday, my esteemed senior girl Heather woke up from her afternoon nap promptly at 4:45 p.m. to agitate for dinner, which is served at 5 p.m. Although … she should have thought it was 3:45 p.m., right?
My mom called while I was considering this, and offered a sensible explanation: Heather doesn’t know really know what time it is, but she know it’s X hours since her last meal, and she’s hungry. Since breakfast was served an hour earlier because of the time change, in other words, her stomach clock knows that dinner should be, too.
Sure, why not? And of course, I fed them at 5 p.m., even though to my mind it was only 4 p.m.
Pictured: 5.5-month-old Otter-pup, the youngster I’m raising for a friend. She thoughtfully brought me a dish to let me know that it was, indeed, empty.
If you look in the right-hand bookcase behind Otter, you can see the only thing I’ve ever collected in my life: First editions of the Albert Payson Terhune books, “Lad: A Dog” and so on. More about Terhune, here and here. His books were in my elementary-school library, and his stories made me want to share my life with animals and write about them, too.
As an adult, I re-read them all. They wouldn’t be allowed in a school-library today. He could be a very good writer when he wanted to be, but his dog stories are formulaic, hack writing at its best. (Parts of them are thought to have been written by Terhune pal Sinclair Lewis!)
They’re also interesting in that the villains are alway recent immigrants, Poles and Italians, who are, let’s just say, considered to be a less-than-savory addition to the melting pot. Interesting, huh? Change the nationality and the attitude remains.
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You are not the only one to notice some pets immediately switch. My explanation would be that dogs use cues more than an internal clock—so they expect food x hours/minutes after some other part of your routine.
In my household, the first morning after the change I got up and my dog openied one eye and stayed where he is. I had change the clock last thing and used an ‘old clock’ bed time. He clearly thought he had another hour to snooze.
Comment by emily — March 12, 2008 @ 7:18 am
p.s. I love those books cases.
Comment by emily — March 12, 2008 @ 7:19 am
Moving sale! I got ‘em for $20 each!
Comment by Gina Spadafori — March 12, 2008 @ 7:25 am
Re: the Terhune books. I have many of his books. About 10 years ago, a friend found a copy of Terhune’s book, “Bruce” which I think was published only (mercifully) once. It makes most of the others look brilliant. The anti-German sentiment in it (written during or just after WWI) is absolutely jaw-dropping to the modern eye.
I do still love some of the others, especially those dealing with his real-life dogs. One of my favorite lines is describing the puppy Sandy (Sunnybank Sandstorm) dismantling a stuffed “luckless toy into a number of independent republics.”
I’ve met a couple of dogs, Sheltie and collie, I think, named Treve. The owners have always been childhood Terhune readers. He had an impact.
Comment by kabbage — March 12, 2008 @ 7:40 am
I’m listening in my car to a Nero Wolfe book written in 1935 by Rex Stout and I always nearly drive off the road when they use the N word for african americans. And then there’s the sterotypical attitude to women too. The narrato does give you a clear warning at the beginning of the book to be fair.
I wonder what people will think about this era’s publications in 2100?
Comment by Laura Bennett — March 12, 2008 @ 8:18 am
My dogs’ stomach clocks have been on DST all winter. In fact, so have 2 of my 3 clocks. Only the clock on the Bose gets changed, because it’s done by remote. At approx 44N and 70W, I love my daylight and wish I was on Atlantic Standard Time along with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, instead of Eastern Standard.
In other words, I feed the dogs at 5 pm from Nov to March, and 6pm the rest of the year.
One of the things I recall about APT’s books was his belief his collies descended from wolves. I remember dog experts poo-pooing that idea back in the 50’s and 60’s. I do wish I had saved my copies as I had all his books, and my collection of Walter Farley novels as well.
Comment by deb — March 13, 2008 @ 3:56 am