19 March 12022

♄   19 March 12022 is Father’s Day, a.k.a. St. Joseph’s Day. Father’s Day is celebrated in June in many places, and a July celebration goes back over a thousand years. There are apparently people who oppose Father’s Day throughout the world, using the same tired “argument” against virtually any holiday—fathers should be honored always, so every day should be Father’s Day. So, I suppose, should veterans (and for that matter all other government workers), mothers, grandparents, children, orphans, religious leaders, kings, inventors, statesmen and so on be honored always—so no need to particularly recognize them on some specific occasion. For that matter every single person is getting older constantly—why pick a particular day to commemorate a milestone? I mean, you can make the argument if you want to, but it’s a dumb one, and unworthy of a response. Let’s strive to make each and every day exactly the same as every other day, so that life can be as monotonous as possible.

Anyway, it’s also the morning after Shab e-Barat, as well as Minna Canth’s Birthday (Finland), Imam Mahdi’s birthday (Iran), and Kashubian Unity Day (Poland). It’s JD 2459658, 16 Veadar 5782, 16 Phalguna 2078, 6 (O.S.) or 19 (N.S.) March 2022, 10 Paremhat 1738, 15 Sha’ban 1443, and 28 Esfand 1400.

On this day in history U.S. (11919) President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the Standard Time Act—the first U.S. law attempting to bring order out of the chaos of every town and village in America having its own time. By this time it was really a done deal—the railroads had got together in 11883 and agreed on a uniform system to make their scheduling easier, and before that the various railroads had each imposed a standard on their own lines—often based on whatever local time was in use at its headquarters. The actual purpose of this law was to impose Daylight Saving Time on the country—a provision that was repealed (over Wilson’s veto) the following year—but with this step, the determination of time passed from private hands to public, where the matter remains today.