Welcome to March. It’s about time. No, really. This month is about time — daylight saving time.

First, how many of you refer to it as daylight savings time, rather than the singular version? I often slip up on this, and I don’t seem to be alone. So what’s up with that extra “s”?

Daylight saving time is technically the correct version, as the practice is saving daylight. Even so, daylight savings time (plural), according to thesaurus.com, is so commonly used that it has become an accepted variant of daylight saving time. That same source says to place a hyphen between daylight and savings because daylight-saving together modifies the word time that directly follows. Our editing bible, The Associated Press Stylebook, says to drop the extra “s” and the hyphen in all cases, so that’s what I am going with.

But what about capitalization? The AP Stylebook says daylight saving time is not capitalized, though DST typically is.

I am glad we got that all sorted out. Now, do we spring forward or spring back? Or is it fall forward or fall back? I can’t seem to get these straight either. All I know is when I get an extra hour, I smile, and when I lose an hour, I curse.

Wait. I do know one other thing about this. Daylight saving time is March 12.

The month of March is about more than time. It is also about St. Patrick’s Day, or as my Irish friend Mike Farrell calls it, the day of my people. The Irish are my people, too, as are the French, the German and the American Indians — at least I think so. Regardless, I try to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day.

As important as daylight saving time and St. Patrick’s Day are, I must admit that my favorite part of March is that it provides me 31 days to work on my April Fool’s Day joke.

Or is it April Fools’ Day? Ugh.

Have a wonderful Wednesday, and thanks for reading.

Shane Goodman 

President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305
www.thedailyumbrella.com

CITYVIEW announced its 2023 Best Of Des Moines readers' choices Jan. 31. You can find all the results from the poll in the February issue of CITYVIEW magazine!

Best Local Vegetarian/Vegan Food

1. Lucky Lotus

2. Des.Fresh.Foods

3. Veggie Thumper

SEE EVENT PHOTOS HERE...

Your Clear Mortgage forecast from Jason Parkin

It'll be mild again today and tomorrow, with breezy conditions. We may see some light snow in parts of Iowa on Friday. We're back to the 50s by Sunday.

For help with preapprovals or refinancing, get in touch with Jason at parkin.mortgage

From 0-50

Couples reflect on 50 and more years of marriage.

Marilyn Perkins, who has been married to her husband, Glenn, for 66 years now, wrote to him for a year before they ever met in person.
“He was in the service in Korea, and I knew his sister,” she says. “She sent my picture to him, and he started writing to me.”

Glenn was from California, but Marilyn was born and raised in Dallas Center. Marilyn was working as a teller at Brenton State Bank while she and Glenn were writing back and forth, and once he returned to California, his parents got him a train ticket to Iowa to see his sister Pat — and Marilyn.

... Read more in the February issue of Grimes/Dallas Center Living magazine.

These celebrities were born on this date: Justin Bieber, Lupita Nyong'o, Jensen Ackles, Javier Bardem, Ron Howard, Kesha, Zack Snyder, Harry Belafonte, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Paul Hollywood, Emeraude Toubia, Tim Daly

SUBMIT: Send your birthday greetings and congratulatory notes to: tammy@iowalivingmagazines.com

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