Oh, sure, the Big Calendar lobby wants you to think that Dec. 21 is the first day of winter. That's the winter solstice, they say. That's four days before Christmas, they say. That's a palindrome number (12-21, the same forward and backward), they say.
OK, maybe they don't say the last one. I just realized it. It's kind of cool.
But the reality is that for most of us, winter doesn't start on the shortest day of the year. Winter stars when daylight saving time ends – today.
For the next 18 weeks, we'll experience darkness in the early evening. A 60-degree day will seem warm. It will be rainy (hopefully!), dark and dreary.
Today starts the dark days of the year – the 18 weeks when we're stuck with standard time.
I won't rail against standard time (if you want to read that, go back and read my column from the first Sunday in November or the second Sunday in March almost any year), I'll just note a key passage of the calendar. Baseball is over. Halloween is past. Barbecuing and sitting in the sun and going to the beach are done for the next 18 weeks.
We have to live it, but we don't have to endorse it. I'll repeat that we should keep rolling back the time to ensure that it continues to be light at 7 p.m., even if that means sunup is at 11 a.m.
But we won't and winter is here.
On to the topics du jour . . .
Remember when we used to say, "There's nothing to watch on TV?"
When was the last time you said or thought that? Five years ago? Ten years?
With the advent of myriad streaming services, on-demand shows and more, most of us make our TV decisions based on what we won't watch, not what we will watch. It's almost hard to imagine how it used to be.
When I tell someone I grew up in a town with two TV stations, it feels like when I was a kid and some old person would tell me that they listened to "The Lone Ranger" on the radio while growing up.
•••
Speaking of TV changes, we're on the verge (and already are there in some ways) of companies bundling TV services and selling them to us as a package.
We used to have that.
It was called cable TV.
•••
This is a little late, but better late than never, I guess: The emails that resulted in the firing of former Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden were unsurprising.
I don't know anything special about Gruden (other than he was a mediocre coach who somehow convinced people he's a genius), but I'm familiar with the culture of football coaches in general and professional football coaches in particular.
There are a lot of Jon Grudens out there in both college and professional football. He was closer to the rule than the exception.
•••
A reminder that you'll hear over and over in the coming months: California's drought isn't over. And if somehow we get 50 inches of rain and the drought ends, the message will pivot: The fire danger isn't over. And the pandemic isn't over.
All may be true, but can't something end?
Do we ever get a celebration?
Oh, I know. We'll celebrate March 13, 2022, when daylight saving time returns.
Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.
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