Today’s Behind Closed Doors had a note about Daylight Saving Time. I had three “almost dead” references rattling around in my head:
#Lazarus
#Monty Python’s The Holy Grail
The Dead Collector: Bring out yer dead.
[a man puts a body on the cart]
Large Man with Dead Body: Here’s one.
The Dead Collector: That’ll be ninepence.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m not dead.
The Dead Collector: What?
Large Man with Dead Body: Nothing. There’s your ninepence.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m not dead.
The Dead Collector: ‘Ere, he says he’s not dead.
Large Man with Dead Body: Yes he is.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m not.
The Dead Collector: He isn’t.
Large Man with Dead Body: Well, he will be soon, he’s very ill.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I’m getting better.
Large Man with Dead Body: No you’re not, you’ll be stone dead in a moment.
The Dead Collector: Well, I can’t take him like that. It’s against regulations.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I don’t want to go on the cart.
Large Man with Dead Body: Oh, don’t be such a baby.
The Dead Collector: I can’t take him.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I feel fine.
Large Man with Dead Body: Oh, do me a favor.
The Dead Collector: I can’t.
Large Man with Dead Body: Well, can you hang around for a couple of minutes? He won’t be long.
The Dead Collector: I promised I’d be at the Robinsons’. They’ve lost nine today.
Large Man with Dead Body: Well, when’s your next round?
The Dead Collector: Thursday.
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I think I’ll go for a walk.
Large Man with Dead Body: You’re not fooling anyone, you know. Isn’t there anything you could do?
The Dead Body That Claims It Isn’t: I feel happy. I feel happy.
[the Dead Collector glances up and down the street furtively, then silences the Body with his a whack of his club]
Large Man with Dead Body: Ah, thank you very much.
The Dead Collector: Not at all. See you on Thursday.
Large Man with Dead Body: Right.
#The Princess Bride
Miracle Max: He probably owes you money huh? I’ll ask him.
Inigo Montoya: He’s dead. He can’t talk.
Miracle Max: Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there’s usually only one thing you can do.
Inigo Montoya: What’s that?
Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.
Anyway, the Behind Closed Doors Note:
Eastern vs. Central
Just about the last thing many legislators feel like revisiting is the debate over what time it is in Indiana. The 2005 fight that narrowly shifted Indiana to daylight saving time still has lawmakers exhausted.
But some residents think the state should reopen the debate — not to repeal daylight saving time, but to move Indiana from the Eastern to the Central time zone.
The Hoosiers for Central Time Coalition is contacting legislators and school superintendents around the state, urging them to support a switch to Central time for the safety of students.
And don’t take my discussion of “mostly dead” as being dismissive of the possibility that the time issue may result in further changes. I thought the daylight saving time issue was dead most of my life — but the pro-DST faction kept bringing it up over and over again until they finally got legislation passed by dint of the thinnest of margins and the reneged vote of Troy “I’ll Never Vote For It” Woodruff. (I went with the Frankenstein allusion on that one.) It’s not like there has ever been anything like a mandate on the time subject in this state. We’ve seen before that a motivated group can get legislation passed even where the issue seems settled and the rest of the state has learned to live with the situation.