Standardize instead of daylightize

This may be a new record: I got from the CTA Blue Line platform to the Admirals Club in 11 minutes. I'm quite pleased. And I have the TSA to thank, by enrolling me in Touchless ID program the last time I flew. I just walked up to the camera, the agent pressed a button, and then she said "Have a nice flight."

And before you get all weird about me giving up my privacy and all, keep in mind that I've had a security clearance in the past. The US Government knows who I kissed at Prom in 1986, and they've had my photo on file since 1993. After the probing they gave me the last time I filled out an SF-86, I'll take the airport perk.

On the way to the airport, I read a few Substack articles, including one by doctors Katrine Wallace and Katie Sharkey: "Ending clock changes. But which direction should we reset the clock?":

When we spring forward, we lose critical morning light. ... The fall transition doesn’t seem to be as harmful to our health and safety: evening crashes rise, but morning crashes drop, and the week nets out flat. “Falling back” is also easier on the body: because our internal clock runs slightly longer than 24 hours, shifting later (what we do in fall) comes more naturally than shifting earlier (what we do in spring)—the same reason flying west is easier than flying east.

With permanent DST, more than 200 million Americans would receive morning light an hour later by the clock, with winter sunrises after 8:15 a.m. in cities including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Denver, San Francisco, and Tampa.

Circadian biology, laboratory research, epidemiologic studies, and natural experiments indicate that permanent standard time is more closely aligned with human biology

Amen. But as I've said for years, the current system is only bad until you pick a permanent ST/DST condition. North of the 30th parallel, it's best to keep changing twice a year.

OK, off to California. Next report when conditions warrant (and possibly from the plane).

Apropos records, I once (and only once!) managed to travel from the door of the aircraft that had just carried me from Seattle to London Heathrow, to the door of my home in a village five miles northwest of Cambridge in under three hours, using public transport for the entire journey. That included clearing immigration and customs, then a one-hour Tube ride from Heathrow to Kings Cross, followed by a 50-minute train journey to Cambridge, and then two buses and a five-minute walk to my house. The travel gods were kind to me that day.