As a morning person from the far western edge of your time zone, I think your Double-Dog Daylight Savings suggestion is a horrible idea. It's already depressingly dark in the morning. If we followed your plan, we'd be admiring the sunrise during lunch. Usually I think you have clever ideas - not this one.

My wife and I enjoyed the entire show as usual. It created the usual number of chuckles, but your double-dog daylight savings plan would be really wacky here in Ontonagon County, MI. The 90th degree of longitude runs right through our county, so we are in the middle of the central time zone. However, being in Michigan we are in the Eastern Time Zone and when we are on Daylight Time, high noon is already at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. With your plan the sun would be at its highest point in the sky at 3 PM! And the sun would not set until 11 PM; we would not be able to see stars and northern lights until after midnight.

I was APPALLED when I heard you give Natalie's husband the OK to continue idling his car during his lunch hour so that he could eat and listen to sports radio in peace. If he lived in NJ, that would be patently ILLEGAL, where the maximum idling time allowed for any vehicle is 3 minutes. In NC, where Natalie lives, they currently have an anti-idling law only for trucks, but the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR) strongly encourages drivers of passenger cars to limit their idling as well (http://www.ncair.org/motor/idle/), saying that "Excessive and unnecessary vehicle idling is a serious, avoidable contributor to air pollution and poor human health." (http://www.ncair.org/motor/idle/idle_campaign.shtml) Furthermore, to counter your statement that while idling the car does emit "some" pollutants, it does not cause any damage to the car's engine, the NCDENR posts the following FAQ (http://www.ncair.org/motor/idle/idle_FAQs.shtml): "Can idling damage my car's engine? "Yes. Because the engine isn't working at its peak operating temperature when it's idling, the fuel doesn't undergo complete combustion. This leaves fuel residues that can contaminate engine oil and damage engine parts. For example, fuel residues tend to deposit on spark plugs. As the amount of engine idling increases, the plugs' average temperature drops, and they get dirty more quickly. This, in turn, can increase fuel consumption by four to five percent. It's a vicious circle of wasted fuel and needless greenhouse gas emissions. Excessive idling can also let water condense in the vehicle's exhaust. This can lead to corrosion and reduce the life of the exhaust system."

I think DDDST is a great idea, at least for the east coast. This time of year it gets light before 5AM!! I had to buy room darkening shades just so I can sleep longer on weekends. Moving it an hour ahead would move Daylight to around 5:30 - 6AM in the peak of summer and then give us sunset around 9 - 9:30PM. That is how it was when I lived in Seattle. Maybe this wouldn't work for the western edges of the time zones - but would love for new England to consider it or just move us to the Atlantic Time Zone.