Time to quit playing with the clock

Ditch the switch.

It’s a son of a — gun.

That seems to be not just a powerful sentiment among the populace, but a nearly unanimous ultimatum. Americans from sea to shining sea are fed up with the annual clock jockeying. They’d much prefer everyone just stick with Daylight Saving Time and forget about falling back.

Last month, just before you went through the ritual of resetting every blasted clock in your home and promptly forgetting to adjust the one in your car, Press columnist Sholeh Patrick shed some light on the frail logic that underscored the switch a half-century ago. She plowed under several myths, including the ol’ “farmers need this” one:

“Farmers actively and vocally opposed the notion of time-shifting until losing the battle in 1966. According to author and historian Michael Downing, the lost hour meant they had to rush faster to get crops to market — they needed the sun to dry the dew off crops before harvesting. Milk cows didn’t cooperate either; animals don’t reset on demand. How history mislabeled farmers with the opposing position is anybody’s guess.”

But rather than cast long shadows over a bad idea that’s never ripened in the sunshine, let’s do as Sen. Steve Vick and others — including our president — suggest. (Donald Trump tweet in early March: “Making Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!”)

Sen. Vick noted that neighboring Washington state is doing its utmost to make DST permanent. Both houses of the Washington Legislature overwhelmingly approved ditching the switch, and Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to sign the bill. Of course, that will mean nothing without Congressional approval.

Sen. Vick noted the likelihood that California, Oregon and Washington will all be petitioning the feds to ditch the switch at the same time. Like many others, he believes Washington making DST permanent would force Idaho into following suit, particularly up here where there’s so much interaction between Kootenai County and Spokane.

How crazy would it be if Washington ditched the switch and we didn’t? Consider this maddening scenario: You make the one-hour drive across Idaho’s panhandle from Montana into Washington. You start on Mountain Time, pitch forward to Pacific Time, then fall back when you cross into Washington. Your car clock is likely to blow up.

Here’s hoping Congress sees the light and that DST becomes SOP.