INDIANA, LIFE ON THE MARGINS

Chicago is on Central Time. Detroit is on Eastern Time. Somewhere in between, the sun leaps from location to location at noon. That space is the border between time zones. This border does not, in the United States, follow the state borders. There are areas of the Dakotas, Idaho, Kentucky, Tennessee, Nebraska, and Washington state that are on different times than the rest of their state. However, nobody, and I mean nobody (note that India and several other are on 1/2 hour increments while the ENTIRE rest of the world is on full hours) can touch Indiana for screwing up the concept of time zones.

Stated briefly:

77 counties (including state capital Indianapolis) are in the Eastern Time Zone but do not change to Daylight time in April; instead they remain on Standard Time all year long; [yellow on map and chart]

10 counties -- five near Chicago, IL, and five near Evansville, IN, are in the Central Time Zone and use both Central Standard and Central Daylight; [red on map and chart] and

five other counties -- two near Cincinnati, OH, and three near Louisville, KY -- are in the Eastern Time Zone but use both Eastern Standard and Eastern Daylight. [green on map and chart]

Thus, when dealing with Indianans, it is the ONLY time in your life that it is meaningful when they say that a conference call (for instance) is at 3 EST, or 3 EDT. I have no idea which time we are on right now. We fell back, whatever that meant. Is that Daylight, or Savings? I don't know, and frankly I don't care. Except when dealing with Indiana.

With all of that said, it is perhaps sad that Indiana's legislature voted to move their clocks in all counties, and asked the Department of Transportation to clarify the border between the time zones in Indiana. One more reason to mock Hoosiers will have fallen to modernism, phones, and business.